The Unstoppable Work of the Spirit

Acts 9 to 13 | Pastor Tomas Portillo

If you wanted to stop a movement, how would you do it? History gives a pretty reliable playbook: go after the leaders first. Scatter the people. Keep out the converts who might actually help it grow. Divide the group from the inside. And if none of that works, bring in the full weight of the government.

That playbook was used against the early church, every page of it. And yet when Luke sums up the result in Acts 12:24, it takes him one sentence: "But the word of God increased and multiplied."

This week, as we continue our series through the book of Acts, Pastor Tomas Portillo walked us through five chapters, Acts 9 through 13, to show why the church survived. Not because the church was strong, but because God was behind it.

The Spirit conquers the enemy (Acts 9)

Saul was the church's most determined enemy, arrest warrants in hand. No one argued harder against the gospel or worked harder to crush it. By the end of Acts 9, that same man is preaching Christ. Hatred could not stop the church, because the Spirit conquers the enemy.

The Spirit breaks barriers (Acts 10)

God gives a Roman officer named Cornelius a vision, and Peter walks into a Gentile home. "While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word." The barrier between Jew and Gentile, the one humans had spent centuries building, was broken by God himself. That same Spirit is why a room full of people who do not speak the same language can still worship the same Christ together, like our English and Spanish congregations do every Sunday.

The Spirit forms a people (Acts 11)

In Antioch, a mixed and messy city, the Spirit does something no one expected. He does not just add believers one by one. He forms a people. Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, insiders and outsiders, are given a new identity that has nothing to do with where they came from: "the disciples were first called Christians" (Acts 11:26). Not a last name. Not a nationality. A people who belong to Christ, and therefore belong to each other.

The Spirit guards his church through suffering (Acts 12)

King Herod kills the apostle James and sets out to kill Peter next. The same church, the same prayers, and yet two very different outcomes. It does not always make sense in the moment. As an old Puritan once said, some of God's ways have to be read backward, like Hebrew. By the end of the chapter, the king who took worship for himself is struck down, and the church keeps growing. His silence is never his absence.

The Spirit sends his church (Acts 13)

The chapter closes with a simple, direct word from God: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." The same sending is still happening today, through ordinary people that nobody expected God to use.

Will you be a spectator or a servant?

Hatred could not stop it. Walls could not stop it. Division could not stop it. The sword could not stop it. The gospel will keep advancing, that part is not in question. The only real question is whether you will be part of it.

The risen Christ ascended with his hands lifted in blessing over his church, and he has not lowered them. He is still building his church in a small town the world might overlook, still using ordinary people, still setting people apart and saying, "Send them."

New here, or thinking about your next step? We would love to connect with you. Visit ccchowchilla.com/nextsteps to learn more, or join us this Sunday at 8:45 AM, 10:30 AM (English), or 12:30 PM (Cornerstone Español).