April 12, 2009: “What Christianity is All About” from Acts 13:13-48

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What is Christianity all about?  True Christianity is about Jesus Christ. On Paul’s first missionary journey, he preached some essential truths about Christianity in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia.

A great promise – Jesus comes: Christianity was not invented by man; God himself made and revealed the promise of Jesus Christ, setting his plan in motion even before the foundation of the world.

A great message – Jesus saves: Regardless of whether our sins are of the red-light district or the respectable variety, we need forgiveness. Each one of us is born facing everlasting destruction. But Jesus Christ, in love, bore the righteous wrath of God that we deserve so that we might be clothed in Christ’s righteousness. Then God raised Christ from the dead, verifying his deity and proving God’s full redemptive purpose and plan. All who turn to Christ in repentance and faith are forgiven and begin a life-changing, eternally-satisfying relationship with God.

A great choice – Jesus gathers: As we see in Acts 13:48, Christianity is not about God doing the best he can to save whomever he can, but about God appointing certain people to eternal life and working in their hearts so that they gladly come to him. This doctrine of election should make us a humble people because we can take no credit for our salvation, and a hopeful people because no sinner is so hard that God cannot save him.

A great community – Jesus displayed: In Acts, those who came to Christ openly identified with him through baptism and then committed themselves to the local church. The church is the greatest example of community on earth, where Christ is displayed before an onlooking world as believers are increasingly transformed into his image.