Cancel Culture: Not a new phenomenon

I am preparing to study the Word of God tonight with our middle school kids at AWANA. Our lesson is about transformation. These kids have been studying the book of Acts this school year and their passage tonight is Acts 9:19-31. Saul encountered the resurrected Jesus Christ and it transformed his life. He even demonstrated that transformation by changing his name from Saul to Paul. We know him today as the Apostle Paul. Before encountering the resurrected Jesus Christ, Saul was a murderer. He hated Christians and persecuted them in every way possible. From this moment on, Paul preaches the Jesus he once opposed. This proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ leads us to our examination of Cancel Culture. It is not a modern phenomenon. It has been around as long as sin has been around.

We must obey God!

Today, I am going to teach from Acts 5 to a group of kids at our church in the AWANA program. This group of kids is learning the book of Acts. This lesson is about obeying God rather than man. Just like there is such a thing as righteous indignation, there is also such a thing as righteous rebellion. This seems like a contradiction but, it actually complements the teachings in the Bible about subjection to earthly authority. In the heart of every human being, there is a spark of rebellion. We have this rebellious streak because of our sin nature. When raising children, we do not have to teach them to be rebellious. It comes naturally to them, just as it comes naturally to us. The definition of rebellion is “resisting an established law“.

Evangelism and Equipping

I had the blessing last night of meeting with our middle schoolers during AWANA. We began studying the Gospel of Luke. This man named Luke is only mentioned by name three times in the Scriptures. The name Luke means “light-giving“. It comes from the Latin name “Lucanus“. Luke was a trained medical doctor. He would have received what we call a “classical” education. Dr. Luke was taught how to do research and to pay attention to the details. Dr. Luke put his research training and love of details to use and blessed all of humanity as a result. I will expound on that a little later on in this article. Before we jump into the Gospel of Luke, I would like to examine the final command that Jesus gave to His disciples before ascending into heaven.