Brothers and sisters, let us be those who fear God and walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit as we make much of King Jesus in these days. Consider your heart and ask yourself if your interactions, social media posts, and inward dialogues reflect a deep trembling before God and deep comfort in the Holy Spirit reminding you of the goodness and mercy found in Jesus Christ. If they don’t – that’s ok – just bring those misplaced fears and misprioritized comforts to the cross of Jesus and ask for help to walk in fresh fear and fresh comfort found in Christ alone. 

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. —Acts 9:31

The book of Acts is always an encouragement to me. As we’ve walked through 1 Peter in our current preaching series at church, we’ve seen that God creates a distinct people from all peoples and expects them to face persecution and suffering as they walk out-of-step with the society they live in. In the book of Acts, we get to see what that looks like.

Christians in the early church were often hated by the religious powers of the day and were misrepresented and maligned by general society. As those who had been purchased by the blood of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2), they simply had a new and living hope that compelled them to walk in newness of life. I think it is fair to say that the moment they were living in was at least as stressful for a church as the moment we are in today.

Read More