After joyfully countercultural witness, our last quality of the “apostolic mindset” to discuss is the conviction of the primacy and power of the Gospel (CLICK HERE to read the rest of the posts in this series).
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not simply a message, whether preached or written down. It is, furthermore, a person: the Person of God the Son, 2nd Person of the Most Holy Trinity become man in the Incarnation. This is the “good news” of the Gospel: that God has become man to dwell among us. And this God-man has a name: Jesus Christ. A name in which the apostles are convinced that all things can be done!
St. Peter’s first recorded healing in Acts comes in 3:1-11. Peter and John are going to the Temple at ninth hour of prayer, so 3pm, wherein they come across a man lame from birth, who’s daily laid at the Temple gate to beg for alms. And he asks Peter and John for alms, but they tell him to look at them. So he does, expecting to be given something, only for Peter to say, “I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (3:6) Peter then takes him by the hand, raises him up, and immediately he can walk. Upon which he enters the Temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all of the people therein see this, recognize him as the lame man who begs for alms, and all run to Peter, John, and the man, amazed at the sight of him now walking.
This is the primacy and power of the Gospel – the name of Jesus! Jesus, Joshua in the Hebrew, meaning God saves. Only this isn’t just a symbolic name, but God Himself – Jesus is the God Who saves. This is not just a name, but this name is salvation itself. And so the very name of Jesus can heal this man. And not just heal this man of lameness of the body, but heal us of “lameness” of soul, our sin. This is why we do all things in the name of Jesus.
As we draw this series on Acts to a close, looking back at the dawn of Christianity leaves us amazed to think that a group of mostly uneducated fishermen changing the world so dramatically. Not the powerful and elites of society, but the simple, ones desired by the Lord. And that is the power of the “apostolic mindset”: live according to this “apostolic mindset” – unique calling from the Father, costly imitation of Christ, utter reliance on the Holy Spirit, joyfully countercultural witness, and conviction of the primacy and power of the Gospel – live according to this “apostolic mindset” and anything seems possible! Would that we view the world, understand our lives, embrace our faith as the apostles did and we may see a similar miraculous transformation of the culture that surrounds us!
