The Book of Acts (September 1, 2024)

 A Demographic Study about “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050” with projections regarding Christianity was conducted and is still an ongoing study. This study stated that “Christianity is by far the world’s largest religion with nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth. Islam is second with 23% of the global population.” 

Predicted by 2050, Christians will remain the largest religious group with 30.7%, Islam with 29.7%. In the United States, Christianity will decline from more than 75% of the population to under 66% of the population. WHY? The study had several reasons, but one that jumped out at me was SWITCHING – a loss of 66 million Christians is projected to come through switching. Most of the loss is projected to come from Christians “joining the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated”. This got me thinking, so I dug deeper.

• Africa – 2.1 million Muslims convert to Christianity
• Afghanistan – 8,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Algeria – 380,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Benin – 40,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Burundi – 2,200 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Cameroon – 90,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Egypt – 14,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Ethiopia – 400,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Morocco – 45,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• Nigeria – 600,000 Muslims convert to Christianity
• South Africa – Pentecostalism has grown from 0.2% to 7.6%

This list goes on and on. Except for the United States of America, thousands and thousands of people are converting TO Christianity, however in the United States the number of Christians has dropped 10.2%, Non-Christians has gone up 0.5%, Muslims up 0.3%, No Religion up 6.8%, Refused to Answer up 2.9%.

Now lets read Matthew 9:37-38.

Matthew 9:37–38 ~ “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.””

The harvest is our own backyard. We don’t have to go far to find someone who needs to hear about Jesus, yet many times Christians in the USA are too scared of offending someone, getting people mad at us, afraid of being labeled strange and weird, afraid of persecution, and so on and on. Many of our churches in the United States are more interested in making sure we got the lights and sounds just right and many have forgotten about the souls that may be sitting on our pews. The countries listed above and many more used to be the countries that American churches would send missionaries into, however, today, the USA is becoming the mission field for these counties.

Acts 8:4–8 ~ “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was much joy in that city.”

The believers who were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching Christ. The believers were dispersed, scattered about just as seed is sown or scattered throughout a field. God was using the evil of the world to spread His followers and message all over the world.

Notice that the scattered believers did not hide in secrecy and fearful silence. They witness and spread the good news of salvation and Jesus Christ wherever they went. Verse 4 uses the words “preaching the word”. This means to evangelize, to declare, to proclaim, to preach the Word of God, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 1:1–4 ~ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

These believers were lay believers, meaning, none were Ordained Bishops of the Church of God. These were the church pew sitting folks, the folks that helped teach the Sunday School classes, the folks that cut the grass, the folks that helped clean the church, the folks that sat and held down the pews! The pattern has been set for all time. Most of the witnessing, most of the pull to the church family is done by lay believers.

The great purpose and result of persecution is to spread the gospel of Christ! God uses persecution …

• the staunch faith and endurance of believers,
• the dispersion of believers (when necessary),

 … to demonstrate the reality of salvation, of His presence in the hearts and lives of people. Through persecution and the believer’s endurance, God shows clearly that He is God. He demonstrates that He really exists and saves man, infusing them with both the hope and power to live forever.

Matthew 5:11–12 ~ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 10:22 ~ “and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Next week, let’s talk about what Revival truly is about!