From Acts to My Office

Have you ever had a conversation in which you were totally blown away by what you heard? I just did sitting in my office. For the past few years, our church, Nassau Bay Baptist, has sent a team to Kenya to work with the Kenyan Baptist Association and the Inkilingosi Baptist church. It has been a rich time of discipleship and evangelism that has yielded much fruit.

For the past two weeks, the Pastor of Inkilingosi Baptist, Bishop John Koina, and Moses Kamakei have been in Houston with us. Today they told a story from their own lives that sounded like something from the Book of Acts.

Bishop John came to know Christ after hearing the voice of God and responding by speaking to a local Christian that he heard singing praises to God in the market. From that point on, more and more people were coming to know Christ in Masai Land. Eventually they were led to start a church. As the Lord continued to bless, the local Masai elders took note of what was going on and felt that their customs and culture were being threatened by these Christians.

From there, the elders called a meeting with the local tribal chief, the elders, and Bishop John. Only John was allowed to speak with a few conditions: that he would not be allowed to read from the Bible and he would not be allowed to ask any questions of the tribe's elders. They wanted to know what this Christianity was and wanted to make sure that the Word of God did not reach their ears.

Eventually the chief and the elders heard John's message about the church and how they worshiped the one true God of Abraham. They heard how through Christ they could know God and how He was working in Masai Land. Eventually Bishop John was able to read to them John 3:16-17, and was able to explain how God had sent His only son into the world to save all men from sin.

The apostles Peter and John faced a similar council after healing a man. They were questioned and were even flogged for preaching Christ. The conclusion that the Masai chief and elders had was similar to that of Gamaliel in Acts 5:33-39. The chief and elders knew that if this movement was from God, then there was nothing that they could do about it.

They were right on both occassions. The early church spread from Jerusalem into all the world. Including Masai Land, where they tribal elders realized that God was at work and they could not stop, even if they wanted to. Therefore Inkilingosi Baptist Church was allowed to worship and now every member of the tribal elders is a believer in Christ.

This story could be right from the pages of the Book of Acts. The early church was just simple "uneducated and untrained men" (Acts 4:13) powered by the Holy Spirit. When they spoke, people listened and lives were changed by the Gospel.

The same thing occurred in Kenya in the 1980's through believers who were bold with the Gospel and filled with the Holy Spirit.

I cannot tell this story as well as Bishop John does, but I wanted to share what God is still doing among the lost. When you read about what God did in first century Israel in the book of Acts remember, He is doing the same things all over the world today.

Read Acts 4-5 as a parallel to Bishop John's story.