Author: Vance

We have been studying the book of Acts on Wednesday evenings. One of the things we have seen is that there is a pattern repeated throughout this book. The church is empowered by the Holy Spirit, the church shares the Gospel with boldness, people are saved, the church is united and prays together – then Satan attacks the church from the outside. But the church remains united and continues to pray together, they share the Gospel with boldness and people are saved. Satan then tries to attack the church through other external sources, but the people remain united and pray together and Satan’s efforts are defeated.

When attacks from the outside are unsuccessful, Satan then attacks the church from the inside and tries to sow seeds of disunity and discouragement. But the people continue to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to detect and defeat the internal attacks. They remain united and pray together, they continue to share the Gospel with boldness and people are saved.

Throughout the book of Acts, as long as the church relied on the Holy Spirit, remained united and prayed together, Satan’s attacks were unsuccessful. It was only when the church began to rely on its own resources instead of the Spirit that the attacks on the church began to splinter the unity and power of the church.

In the last several weeks, we have seen God working in Fee Fee Baptist Church. We have celebrated the baptism of several of our children. (Thanks goes to Kathy Scott and our great children’s workers who faithfully share the Gospel with the children.) We have seen some new families join the church. We have had a powerful and life-changing DNOW experience for our youth. (Thanks to Kyle Baldwin and the youth workers.) These are just a few of the wonderful things that God is doing in our midst.

We can gain strength and encouragement from seeing what happens when a church is focused on Kingdom work. This should cause us to pray together even more fervently and work together to spread the Gospel in our community.

But we also need to remember that Satan works the same way today that he did in the first century church. He does not like to see a church praying and working together. He does not like to see people responding to the Gospel. He does not like to see God’s Kingdom advancing. His methods of trying to stop a church always include discouragement, division and tempting us to rely on our own resources and not on the Holy Spirit.

We need to be alert to Satan’s attacks and remain united, praying together that God’s Spirit will continue to empower us to be bold in building God’s Kingdom.

Only in John’s gospel do we meet the risen Jesus at the tomb (John 20:1-18). In the other three gospels, the women meet an angel or two, but in John we hear the voice of Jesus Himself.

On the Sunday after Jesus was killed, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and the Beloved Disciple go to Jesus’ tomb together and find it empty. The men run off to figure things out while Mary sticks around weeping. She is broken and confused. The Powers had already killed her Lord, and now she believes they have stolen His dead body.

I can imagine what must have been going through her mind, perhaps: “Didn’t He tell us that He was the vine and we were the branches, and if we remained in Him that He’d stick with us? Where is He now? He told us that we can’t bear good fruit apart from Him. What am I supposed to do now?”

Feeling abandoned and confused, she wisely decides to stay in the place she expected to find her Messiah. Then, Mary turns around to find someone standing behind her. She doesn’t recognize Him, but she’s looking into the face of her risen Lord. Jesus lets Mary squirm in this confusion for a time. Thinking that he is the gardener, she asks if he moved the body of Jesus.

Then, the voice of Jesus breaks in and opens Mary’s eyes with one word: “Mary.” There’s no dramatic fanfare: no earthquakes, no spontaneous prophecies, no miracles. There’s only a word: “Mary.” She suddenly sees with new eyes, and giving him a bear hug, she cries out, “Rabboni!” (“Teacher!”)

Perhaps you can relate to Mary’s situation. Most of us have gone through periods in the Christian journey where we feel abandoned, where God hasn’t shown up like we expected: “I lost my job and have bills to pay;” or “I’m in a new place where no one knows me;” or “I raised my son in the faith, but now he hates the church.” Or maybe it’s a spiritual dryness: “I’m lost but I just can’t pray;” or “Scripture means nothing to me anymore;” or “I have no desire to be around Christians – they just make me feel bad.”

In these moments, let’s be like Mary and return to the places where the Lord has worked before: run to Scripture, pray fervently, step vulnerably into Christian fellowship. We may feel like our prayers aren’t working, but we keep praying, hoping to meet the Lord there once again.

Sometimes we live in this period of confusion and distance for a time. But don’t lose hope. Jesus is with you, just as He was with Mary. Jesus is ready to speak that perfect word into your situation in His best timing. Then, when Jesus dramatically breaks into your situation and pours a bucket of icy water onto your parched soul with that perfect personal word, you, like Mary, can go share the good news of what this risen Lord is doing.

Blessings,
Pastor Matt