Charter for the Common Way
This Sunday I begin a new sermon and worship series: “Charter for the Common Way.” I’ll be preaching through Acts 1-12 and highlighting the characteristics of Christian community in the book. In order to follow Christ’s command to share the gospel from “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8), he empowered them by the Holy Spirit to be a community. In other words, to reach the community they became an outward-focused community. To share the gospel with their neighbors, they had to be a neighbor. To get people to come to church, they had to be the church.
The characteristics are summarized for us in Acts 2:41-47. Each one is based on the Greek word for “common”: koine. They are found throughout the book of Acts:
- Persistent people from all phases of life
- Provisions submitted to someone else’s authority
- Place of work and life
- Person of Jesus Christ
- Pressure from insiders and outsiders
- Pursuit of common interests
- Power from the Holy Spirit
- Performance of the message
- Promise of Jesus’ imminent return
As God formed them into the community, the gospel spread from the temple, to neighborhoods and workplaces, and across the world. This Sunday night at 6:00PM, we’ll celebrate the evidence of that work happening already in our midst. We will commission over 20 missionaries from First Baptist who will be serving in some kind of Christian mission, camp, or adventure. They will be going from Southeast Asia to Turkey to Rome (Georgia), and beyond. We’ll commission our FBCTLH mission groups to East Tennessee, Virginia, and Haiti traveling this summer and announce the leadership ministry group planning Life Groups. We will be sharing in ways that you can be involved in one-day projects such as “A Full Summer” on Saturday, June 7 and blessing our VBS and camp leadership as they prepare for an exciting week in June. We will be receiving a special missions offering to assist these projects in the year. You don’t want to miss this powerful service.
To love Tallahassee, we must be empowered by the Spirit to love one another in the same way the early church was. Let’s come together on the Way.