The Unhindered Gospel

        The book is called the “Acts of the Apostles,” but it is really the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Acts consistently shows the Spirit of God helping the early Christians navigate the rough waters of internecine conflict, persecution from without, and various other challenges to establish churches throughout the Roman world, from Jerusalem, the site of Jesus’s death and resurrection, to the heart of the Eternal City itself. It’s an exciting adventure story, and the Holy Spirit is the star.

        Along the way, as in any good adventure story, the Spirit faces obstacles and barriers that threaten to hinder the advance of the gospel. Acts is the story of how God overcomes those obstacles. From the opening moments, when Peter and the other apostles boldly proclaim the name of Jesus in the shadow of Golgotha, to the closing verse of the book that finds Paul in Rome proclaiming the gospel “with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:31), the Spirit consistently finds ways to get over, past, or through all hurdles. In fact, borrowing from that final verse, one could accurately declare the theme of Acts to be “The Unhindered Gospel.”

        Consider just a few examples:

— In Acts 2 the crowd mocks the apostles, thinking they are drunk as they preach in different languages; by the end of the day 3,000 converts have come into the fold;

— in Acts 3 and 4 the priests arrest Peter and John and forbid them to preach in the name of Jesus; they continue, with the result that the church is encouraged and emboldened;

— in Acts 7 the Jewish authorities arrest and then stone to death a disciple named Stephen, then begin persecuting the other Christians; the result is that the church is scattered beyond the environs of Jerusalem;

— in Acts 8 and 10 Philip and Peter in separate incidents preach the gospel to and baptize God-fearing Gentiles; and

— starting in Acts 13 Paul takes his mission to pagan Gentiles despite opposition from many Jewish Christians; the result is another expansion of the gospel.

        In Acts 19 we see Paul in action. According to Luke, the writer of Acts, Paul consistently starts out in the local synagogues, trying to convince his Jewish compatriots that Jesus is their long-awaited Messiah. He does that here in Ephesus, “[arguing] persuasively about the kingdom of God” (v. 8). But when opposition arises Paul leaves the synagogue and begins preaching daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, that is, among pagan Gentiles. He continues this practice for two years, with the upshot that “all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, [hear] the word of the Lord” (v. 10).

        We modern Christians find it comfortable inside our “synagogues,” preaching to the already converted. For many generations this was fine, because Christianity was the dominant religious force in European and American society. But in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t hold that privileged place anymore. The “Nones” and the “Spiritual but Not Religious” are threatening to overtake the Devout as the majority religious options in our country.

        In such changed circumstances we might want to consider a changed approach. No longer can we expect non-Christians to come to us in the safe enclave of our church. So maybe what the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish in our time through us is to get the gospel unhindered again. Maybe we need to take the gospel out into the streets, into the lecture halls of Tyrannus, into the lives and concerns and conflicts and doubts and animosities of the “pagans” of our time and place. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the spark for a new revival of the church—one that may not look like what we have known before but that is true to both the gospel and the needs of coming generations.

        The Spirit is calling us to get outside the walls of the church so the gospel can do its unhindered work again. How will we respond?