Transformative Transitions: Persecuted to Persevering

Sermon Synopsis

Every person knows transitions. Transitions in family life, work, finances, relationships. The list goes on. Living as a Christian is  no different. The Lord is always moving us forward in transitions. As we walk with Jesus, we are constantly being taken from “here” to “there”, one depth of relationship to another as we grow to be like Him in increasing ways.

Luke writes in the book of Acts to a specific audience: “O Theophilus”. Probably referencing one follower of Christ, Luke is writing to the broader “Theophilus” or “Lover of God”. He opens his first book – the Gospel of Luke – writing to Theophilus to provide “certainty concerning the things [he] had been taught”. Luke’s second book to the Lovers of God, Acts, is written in transition. It is a record of what happens to Christians – to the Church – who have been captured by Jesus and are propelled by Him into what is next. The Book of Acts challenges us in the “transformative transitions” that come in a community of believers who are founded in Christ then compelled by Him to witness with all their lives.