Dear Christian,
Do you feel compelled by the present distress to do something to help calm the chaos, unify broken relationships, and encourage love among neighbors and countrymen?
If so, you are not alone. It is hard to see the unrest and anxiety around us and not want to offer healing.
But what can you and I, specifically, do to heal the nation? Is there an answer?
Some Christians are shining shoes. Some are giving out hugs on street corners. Some are pushing to pass police reform. Some are trying to listen more to identify with the plights of fellow Americans.
Guess what? The answer to the unrest, the violence, the anger, the abuse of power, the ill will towards neighbors—the answer lies in the Gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ was crucified on behalf of all who believe in Him!
In Acts 10, God teaches a Jewish preacher and apostle, Peter, a vital lesson. He arranged for Peter to go to the house of a Gentile (non-Jew) named Cornelius, and the first thing Peter said to Cornelius and his family was, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10.28). Then Peter preaches one of my favorite sermons. He begins in this way:
34 “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
Acts 10.34-38
And Peter ends the sermon with this:
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Acts 10.43
The gospel clearly has gone forth to unify men of all nations.
In a vision of the coming Christ, Daniel wrote in Daniel 7:
13 “I saw in the night visions,
Daniel 7.13-14
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14 And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
Malachi finished up the writings of the Old Testament prophesying of John the Baptist:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Malachi 4.5-6
The Gospel is about healing broken people because the Gospel changes our hearts. No longer do we view others with hate, although we all once hated one another (Titus 3.3), but now we love all men. God’s grace brings salvation to all people (Titus 2.11). When we truly understand His grace—that He loves and blesses us even though we are filthy, unrighteous, and deserving only of punishment—then we can truly extend grace to others.
I was saved by God’s grace! I did not deserve it. So, even though you, my neighbor, are acting the fool and attempting to hurt me in your hatred, I will still love you and show compassion for you and open my heart to you.
Jesus broke down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile through the cross. His death opened the doors of reconciliation. We are first reconciled to God, then to our fellow man.
Do you want to do something to change this world? Do you want to effect real, lasting, and powerful change? Then preach the Gospel! Tell your neighbors about Jesus! He grants peace, life, and victory over the evil of this world.
It sounds too simple, doesn’t it? Jesus is certainly not the answer this world thinks it needs—but this world is full of darkness and does not walk in true wisdom. God has blessed us with the light of His word, the light of His Gospel, and we should share it! We should live it! We should bring God’s wisdom to bear on everything.
Really, we should just continue to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we’ve been called and preach the Gospel, which is God’s power unto salvation for ALL who believe, to the Jew first and also the Greek. May God bless us in this walk.