What should our approach be to those who profess faith for the first time? Well, we need to go to them! The living God cares for those who are new and vulnerable.
This was the heart of the Lord Jesus when he first spoke to Peter after the resurrection, after Peter had betrayed him. His command for Peter was that he would feed his lambs. “Feed my lambs,” Jesus says to Peter. “Tend my sheep.”
So, there must be a care that Peter took for the whole church, of course, but there was a special mention of the lambs. But Peter knew, John had picked this up, that there was a responsibility in the apostles to shepherd those who just professed faith—they were new to the faith, they were vulnerable, they needed the Holy Spirit, they needed praying for, they needed attention.
And it’s a principle that Luke had recorded the Lord Jesus speaking about in the 15th chapter of Luke’s gospel. We read of the parable of the lost sheep, where a shepherd seeks out that one last sheep. Jesus shows the heart of God who seeks out the new, seeks out the weak, seeks out the last, brings them back into the fold, and there’s rejoicing.
That is in that chapter—when one sinner repents. That’s the energy with which they’re travelling to Samaria—the energy of seeking the newly found who once were lost.
But ultimately, Luke is showing that this is the heart of the Holy Spirit for all believers. Remember how Paul sets out in Romans chapter 8 the life of the Spirit: the Holy Spirit himself bears witness with our souls that we are children of God. So, the Spirit indwells us, and he confirms to us that we are Christians.
And so that’s what Peter and John want to do—they want to do what the Holy Spirit does.
Paul prays in Ephesians 3:16, “May you be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” Prayer is so key to this, and we’ll come on to that prayer aspect again in the final point because it’s very important. But in the meantime, we focus on that heart of the Holy Spirit.
We’ve got to feed the lambs, we’ve got to tend Jesus’ sheep, we’ve got to seek out those last sheep, we’ve got to rejoice for the new converts. We’ve got to be like the Holy Spirit in praying for people and in giving them assurance where that assurance is possible. We’re going to pray like the apostle Paul prayed—that people will be strengthened with power through his Spirit in our inner being (pray that prayer of Ephesians 3).
But let me give you a word of reassurance: if you’re new and you feel on the outside, if you feel a bit neglected by those who’ve been Christians for years, the Holy Spirit is ultimately caring for you, and you don’t need to worry—it’s OK.
And if you are somebody stressed out about the new people, only thinking, “Oh, how can we possibly cater to them and help them in the right way?”—don’t stress out ultimately, because the Holy Spirit will care for them. It’s OK.
