Unstoppable: The Awakening of the Early Church in Acts

There is a classic philosophical question that was used in the 2008 Batman: The Dark Knight movie.  In it, the Joker asks Batman, “What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object?”  The premise is the foundation of so many comic book hero/villain duos. The hero and villain are like the force and the object fighting against each other, both absolute in their motive and resolve; and neither can fully exist while the other is in their way.

The question itself is essentially unsolvable because it is built on two conflicting premises.  The first premise is that the object is immovable, implying strong, solid, and eternal etc.  The second premise is that the force is unstoppable, implying movement, change, and direction.  The question asks of us to make a choice:  is the object actually moveable or is the force actually stoppable?  People have come up with many nuanced and bizarre ways to answer this question, from describing subatomic particles, to using philosophical reasoning, to linguistic parsing (what does ‘What’ really mean anyway?).  Before I get into my answer, let’s look at the Book of Acts.

Acts comes on the heels of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  The stories recount the works of Peter, Paul and the disciples as they grapple with following Jesus’ teaching.  Despite impossible setbacks, the Gospel spreads in miraculous ways and unlikely bystanders become major players.  Modern reasoning cannot account for the explosion of growth in those early churches as they transformed their beliefs and their lives to follow Jesus, especially given the death penalty they were often sentenced by Rome.

When the Holy Spirit came upon the Disciples, it was like awakening deep, sleeping power.  When the Holy Spirit appears in Acts, it revealed the salvation that God had been planning since the beginning of creation.  The Holy Spirit is the unstoppable force, even when Jesus was crucified on the cross.  God’s divine will could not be stopped.

Back to our initial question:  If the Holy Spirit is an unstoppable force, our world of disbelief is the immovable object. Even today after centuries of miracles and marvels, the belief in Jesus Christ is waning against modern culture.  The American Dream is to be productive and rich, to have self-indulgent leisure time.  Unfortunately, that is not what Jesus wants for us.  According to the Gospel we should acknowledge our sinful ways, and live a humble life of generosity and service to the outcasts.

Here then is the quandary of Acts:  Can God’s unstoppable Holy Spirit, really change the hearts and minds of a world built to resist him?  Will the world bend to the force of the Holy Spirit who has come to prove that love is stronger than hate, that generosity is stronger than selfishness, and the faith is stronger than doubt?  Or will the stubbornness of the world resist the Holy Spirit to its own detriment?  Come every Sunday in May to find out!

           Pastor Karl