Growing Pains
The Holy Spirit empowers Jesus’ church for mission; both in its launch 2,000 years ago and today. We (Dave and I) have seen this, even in the small way he’s pulled our series together, despite our human limitations. The first trio of sermons focussed on that Spirit-empowered launch, based on the living message of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The next four have focussed on the early obstacles (or attacks) that the church faced, especially around the sharing of gospel truth and practical love (generosity vs. greed). We’ve seen external opposition, internal corruption, and this week we come to the most subtle attack: organisational distraction. As the church grows, it’s at risk of getting bogged down in structural difficulties, but the Spirit continues his powerful work by multiplying ministry and protecting both the gospel truth and the practical love.
