Acts 2:11  …we hear them declaring the wonders of God …

The first disciples were thoroughly convinced of the message they proclaimed. They had been with Jesus. They had seen and heard Him. They could testify that He had performed miracles and signs and wonders. They watched Him fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament. They had seen Him betrayed, tortured and crucified. Then they saw Him alive again. With the Spirit’s power, they understood these wonders, wonders performed by a loving God. They knew that God was reaching out to save the souls of all who would repent and believe in Jesus as their Savior. So they shared this with those that they met. It was a one-on-one approach.

In the early church, this one-on-one system worked well. It got results. The book of Acts tells you that. History tells us that by the year 300, this one-on-one system had worked so well that it appeared that the entire civilized world would be converted by 500 A.D. This “one-on-one” system worked so well because the Holy Spirit used plain ordinary folk, caring people, to share the wonders of God’s love. However, this system all but stopped when the Emperor Constantine decreed that everyone in his empire was already Christian. After that, people developed the opinion that declaring God’s love was the job of the church, not individuals. Since that time, the church has become larger, and perhaps better organized. But without this one-on-one system–people sharing the wonder and love of God with each other–the church has suffered.

There is still hope because there is still the Holy Spirit. He can renew the church and individuals so that they can once again know the wonder and power of God’s love. As those who have experienced this renewal and have come to faith in Jesus Christ, we want to be His instruments. We are those who have been with Jesus because of our faith in Him. We need to exhibit the zeal of those first disciples. We need to declare the wonders of God!

We dare not declare a watered-down version of God’s Word. The message we proclaim is that which is found in the Bible, that which has been handed down to us and which we have taken to heart. The Scripture tells us that all men have sinned and deserve to be damned, separated eternally from God and His love. That is what we have earned by our actions. But God does not leave us in that state of despair with no hope. He reached out to us in love made flesh, sending His dearly loved Son into the world. Jesus Christ was born as a man in order to take the sins of all men on Himself. He could do that because He had lived a perfect life. Paul wrote about that:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

He took our sins and paid the penalty for them through His death on the cross. That is why we display the cross so prominently–as a reminder of what Jesus did for us there.

But that is not all of the message. After our Lord took the sins of all men on Himself and paid the price for them by dying in our place, He rose again to live eternally. He proclaimed His victory over sin and death, and offers His righteousness to all who believe in Him. Through faith in Jesus Christ, God sees you as being without sin, since the righteousness of Jesus gives you a covering. Even though you continue to sin, God does not hold your sins against you if we trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior. And this forgiveness is open to any and everyone. All you must do is believe that Jesus Christ lived, suffered, died and rose again for you, and you will be forgiven, redeemed, and restored.

It’s simple. It’s free. It is God’s promise. It is the message that we will continue to proclaim. God has shared this wonderful blessing with us, and we want others to share in it, so that they will be among the faithful in the joy of eternal life with our God. So we will continue to declare the wonders of our God.