John the Baptist was in prison. Hope seemed void. You see John really thought Jesus was the promised Messiah. John’s question though is powerful. Really it’s the question under the question. Why is it so powerful? Simply because it is a question that every single one of us has asked.

The Kingdom of God is coming. It comes quietly. It comes slowly. It comes unobtrusively. But it comes! It comes as God people walk in the light of his way. It comes as His people cultivate relationships rather than cut down. It comes as God’s people chose to return from the long exile. As it comes it brings hope, love, joy and peace and it’s presence is unavoidable.

In order to take The Great Commandment seriously, we must create space in our

lives to build relationships with those who live near us. The biggest obstacle to taking the great commandment seriously is TIME. When we say; “I don’t have time to get to know my neighbor, what we are really saying is “I don’t consider getting to know my neighbor as important as everything else that I do.” We live in tension between the urgent and the important.

The power and genius of The Great Commandment is that it’s so simple and yet

extremely powerful when acted on. The smartest thing that we can do collectively to impact our city is to actually live out Jesus’ command to love our neighbors.

The power and genius of The Great Commandment is that it’s so simple and yet

extremely powerful when acted on. The smartest thing that we can do collectively to impact our city is to actually live out Jesus’ command to love our neighbors.

In chapters 8, 9 and 10 there are 3 conversions stories. An Ethiopian. A Jewish Pharisee and an already follower of Jesus. The first two you have probably heard about as conversions, but then again so is Peter’s conversion. What is a conversion? It is a new way of seeing the world. All three are given new eyes to see the world as they had not seen it before. That is conversion and as followers of Jesus conversion is not a one time thing, it is a constant and ongoing process.

The right eyes begin to give us the right heart. The right heart begins to transform the way we see the world around us. When we see Christ as He is we want those around us, our neighbors to see him as we see Him. It gives us the courage to stand, to stand when it is not popular because we sincerely love people enough to risk all for the gospel.

These early followers life was focused on Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Their prayers were focused in that direction as well. What happened in the midst of their prayers? God answered them for the purpose of his kingdom and glory. The prayer life of these first Jesus followers was forming and shaping them into Christ likeness for Christ’s mission.

We follow Jesus not as comfortable and complacent people, but as people who are passionately following Jesus. Life is lived with one single purpose in mind, to build the kingdom of God. It is the mission Jesus came for and the mission we are called to. In chapter 4 there was something though that set these first followers apart, “they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”