I sat with rapt attention as the story unfolded, in video form, of the early beginnings of the Vienna SDA Church and School during last week’s 8th grade graduation. It was put together to honor the now 100 years that our school has been in existence. As a matter of fact this meant last week’s graduation celebrated the 100th 8th grade graduating class from Vienna Adventist Academy. Therefore as story after story was told in the video of the early, committed and pioneering members of this church, which was planted as a result of an evangelistic campaign in this city, I couldn’t help but feel the passion and momentum that comes from a people who see themselves as a local movement!
This is the kind of “all in” passion for mission you would have felt after Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers in Jerusalem. Thousands on top of thousands of people where coming into the church as the Good News of Jesus was proclaimed throughout the city. Several of the believers could still remember the scene and even still hear the voice of their Savior in their minds as He commissioned them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth, and here it was happening right before their very eyes. They weren’t just seeing it, but they were apart of it! Well, at least the beginning of it, for they had not yet moved out into Judea, Samaria and beyond. The truth is they had accomplished a lot through the preaching, teaching, miracles, leadership and equipping of the Apostles. Plus many of them were Jews with a strong affinity for the Temple in Jerusalem, though they now knew that Jesus was the fulfillment of all its ceremonial services, thus making it obsolete. And now after almost 3 1/2 years of successful mission in Jerusalem after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Messiah, they had honestly gotten comfortable with what they had accomplished thus far. The prophetic pen of Ellen White captures their situation well when she says,
“Success had attended the ministry of the word in that place, and there was danger that the disciples would linger there too long, unmindful of the Saviour’s commission to go to all the world… Instead of educating the new converts to carry the gospel to those who had not heard it, they were in danger of taking a course that would lead all to be satisfied with what had been accomplished.”
However, the prophetic clock was about to strike in a way that would completely change everything!
Daniel had already laid out, in striking detail, a prophecy in Daniel chapter 9:24-27 called the 70 weeks or 490 years prophecy. It convincingly pinpointed the very times of Jesus’ anointing as Messiah by the Holy Spirit at His baptism in 27 AD, His crucifixion or being “cut off” in the middle of the prophetic week in 31 AD, 3 1/2 years later, and then it concludes with the catalytic event that literally splits the book of Acts in two. You see, when Luke records Jesus commanding the disciples in Acts 1:8 to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth, this literally becomes the outline for the entire book of Acts. In Acts chapters 1-7, Luke records for us the witness of the church in Jerusalem. Then in Acts chapters 8-28, he records for us the witness of the church moving into Judea, Samaria and then to the ends of the earth, with Paul testifying in Rome by the end of the book. So whatever the prophetic event is that happens between Acts chapter 7 and Acts chapter 8, which is where we’ll be today, constitutes the shift that moves the church from complacency to mission beyond Jerusalem.
Now I wonder if I’m talking to someone that can relate with getting comfortable with what has already been accomplished? I wonder if I’m talking to a church that sees itself as a movement, a monument or a museum? And now as we reflect on where we were prior to the pandemic and where we are now as we are coming out of the pandemic, I wonder if you’re willing be brutally honest enough to admit that you’’ve gotten complacent with the mission! So here’s the question we need to sit with today: How does God shift us from the comfort of complacency into the momentum of mission? Well, let’s allow the Holy Spirit to show us clearly today as we take the dive into Acts chapter 8:1, because it’s here that we immediately discover that the game changing event that happened as soon as the prophetic clock struck was the stoning of Stephen. The story of his martyrdom is recorded for us in Acts chapter 7, which by the end of this chapter we’re introduced to a man named Saul who had apparently condoned, coordinated and facilitated Stephen’s stoning. The story continues to unfold for us in Acts chapter 8 beginning in the second sentence of verse 1, which says…
Stay tuned for Part 2…
CJ Cousins
Follower of Jesus, Husband, Father, Associate Pastor for Younger Generations at Vienna SDA Church and Speaker/Author for Living For Him. CJ’s passion is to live, preach & teach the Good News about Jesus and multiply disciples for His Kingdom.