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"GOOD NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD"
NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE TEXT:
ACTS 2:43-47

LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
DAVE RING, PASTOR
SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 27, 2008

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

PRAYER: (Let's pray for our message, please.) Lord, may your people be encouraged by the global spread of the Gospel - and may the glory go to Jesus! Amen.

MESSAGE: "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Suppose tomorrow you were to open a copy of "USA Today" or an "Albuquerque Journal" and read this headline: "Christians Win 55,000 Yesterday; More Expected Today!" "Christians Win 55,000 Yesterday; More Expected Today!" That would certainly be an unexpected news story - but it would be very good news. And even though neither the Albuquerque newspaper, nor USA Today, nor any of our well-known TV or radio news media is likely to carry this story, it is an actual, factual account of the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ - right now! Today, and yesterday, and tomorrow - every day for the past decade and every day for at least the next two decades at the present pace - 55,000 new persons have come and will come into the faith and fellowship of believers in Jesus Christ worldwide. 55,000 new believers - every day! In the approximate two minutes since I began this sermon, 76 new persons have begun lives of faith in Christ, somewhere around the world.

Think of it! In sub-Saharan Africa alone, over 200 million new Christians were received during the 1980's and 1990's. In Latin America, between 3 and 4 million persons regularly become evangelical Christians each year. In South Korea, starting from virtually zero in 1953, 80% of the 50 million inhabitants are Christian today - just 55 years later. Russia, which was officially "atheistic" until 1993, now counts upwards of 50 million Christian church attendees weekly - just 15 years after the fall of the "iron curtain." In present-day Cambodia, our own United Methodist denomination can't organize congregations fast enough to meet the demands of tens of thousands of eager young Christian converts.

More persons have come to faith in Christ in the most recent sixty years - the approximate span of my own lifetime or earth - than in all the 1900-plus years of Christian history from Jesus' time to 1947. More Christian missionaries were sent out in the just-completed 20th century than in all the so-called centuries of "Christendom" before. More martyrs died for the Christian faith in the most recent 100 years than in all the Roman persecutions of the first three centuries A. D. These aren't empty statistics - figures made up to make modern-day Christianity look good. Historians both secular and sacred can supply ample data to verfiy them.

Certainly, the global picture is not uniformly rosy. 2.4 billion of our world's 6.2 billion inhabitants live in areas where, for political and other reasons, they cannot easily hear the gospel. The Mideast, where both a dozen Arab nations and the Jewish state of Israel strictly forbid the preaching of the gospel, is a notable example of this. On the other hand, the mushrooming of the indigenous Christian church in communist China, which has been happening since the mid 1960's but only recently came to Western attention, once again proves that even the worst political repression cannot halt the advance of the Gospel. It's sadly true that in the old, established former centers of our faith - western Europe and north America, including the USA, Christianity is slowly but surely declining. But from a worldwide perspective now, right now, is Jesus Christ's finest hour since the Resurrection!

How is this happening, unseen, before our very eyes? Ah, we foolish Americans, thinking we really know the world about us, sitting in front of our TV's or computer screens, spoon-fed what the secular media want us to know. 25,000 Christians can attend a prayer rally - and you'll never see a reporter around. But let one off-the-wall clergyman announce that he's "gay," and that's guaranteed to be front-page news. Right now, the world is being turned upside down by Jesus Christ - and we're not even aware of it!

"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Just as He was doing in the second chapter of Acts, just as He has been doing ever since, Jesus Christ is today building His Church. The winds of His Holy Spirit are blowing strong over all the four corners of the earth. God is more alive in our world today than ever before. If you don't believe that, if you just can't see it, I submit that you're not in possession of all the salient facts.

The preaching of Christ is never intended to be one-way communication. Rather it always calls for response from those who hear the Gospel. So now let me both continue and complete today's message by suggesting three ways that you might respond to it.

First, lift up your heads! It's time Christians stopped apologizing, mealy-mouthing, and hand-wringing. It's time we stopped worrying about our wayward grandchildren, dividing over whether or not the Muslims are really a threat to our way of life, and predicting that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. God is on the move - His Church is advancing - the victory of His Kingdom is nearer today that it ever has been. And He wants you and me on the front lines with Him - with heads held high to His glory! I belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Don't you?
A second response is this: Open yourself wider to the Holy Spirit. I'm not talking about "tongues" or "charismatics" or any of those neatly-pigeonholed arguments with which mainline Christians are primed to fend off any and all "Holy Spirit" talk. Two weeks from now is Pentecost Sunday on my official United Methodist calendar - and the week after that is Trinity Sunday. Dare to believe that God really is in His world today - as the third person of that great Trinity. Dare to allow that God can actually come into in your life today - that He can fill you with His Holy Spirit. You'll become a better, stronger, happier person when you do - and a much more effective witness in this world for Jesus Christ.

Third, get involved in the outreach - the mission - of Jesus Christ in the world today. And please don't even bother trying to sidetrack me with that old cop-out, "Oh, I don't have to speak out about my faith because my life speaks for me. It's my silent witness for Jesus." If "lifestyle evangelism" really worked, Jesus would have been acknowledged as God's Messiah long before He began to publicly preach at age 30. His was the most perfect, most Godly life ever lived - but nobody noticed. Like Jesus, you need to get out, open your mouth, and do something for the advance of the Kingdom. This particular church, Los Alamos First United Methodist, provides more and varied opportunities than any other church I've ever seen to involve its members in Christian outreach and missions. Get involved - in one or more specific ministries to advance the spread of the Gospel - locally, nationally, and globally!

"And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." It's really happening, people of God. Praise the Lord - and amen!

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