Acts 19-28

There are many different kinds of Christian book that get published. One of them is the missionary biography: stories that tell how someone of a previous generation took the good news of Jesus Christ to a part of the world where he had never been heard of. Frequently, these stories include some dramatic accounts of God intervening to help. There are many difficulties encountered — someone perhaps about to run out of money, and they prayed, and providentially the next ship from London carried everything that they needed.

Let me ask you a question: what kind of thing is Christianity? Or maybe you say, “Okay, that's obvious — it's a religion.” Or maybe it is. Maybe that's a helpful label; maybe it's not.

Some people helpfully point out that religions generally are about the human race trying to climb up a ladder towards God, whereas Christianity is about God coming down from heaven to reach us. So in some ways, the label “religion” is not helpful when applied to Christianity. This is something different from anything else called a religion.

Part of being a Christian is to witness to other people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you are really pleased to hear that. I suspect a number of us had been secretly hoping nobody would ever say that to us, because we find the thought of speaking about the Lord Jesus with others terrifying and difficult. If that is you, you're not alone. Lots of people find it difficult.

Do you ever look at the world and wish that you could make it a better place? There's much in the world that is not good. There are people who are broken and who struggle. Governments pass laws that are unjust. There is plenty of criminal activity, ranging on a spectrum from vandalism through to robbery through much worse.