The gospel – the person and work of Jesus – saves from future wrath and transforms our present life. That is the claim of the Bible from Genesis to Exodus. It is the theme of Isaiah 53 in particular, where the suffering servant takes on our sin in our place to redeem a people for himself.

Tom had been reading this passage – the Hebrew Scriptures are part of his heritage as a Jew. He couldn’t shake the feeling that these words were ultimately about Jesus, so after months of online research, he came to the rue de Sèvres church, the mother church of Eglise de la Montagne, which Philip and Rachel Moore are planting this fall.

Tom in his nightclub

When Philip met Tom at church (the sermon was on the Ten Commandments, particularly the sabbath) and found out that Tom lived in the 5th, where the church-plant would be, he invited Tom for coffee the following week. Towards the start of the conversation, Tom told Philip he owned and managed a nightclub. ‘I don’t go to nightclubs that often’ – Philip meant never – and Tom replied ‘I can tell!’ So the relationship was cemented and developed. Tom had millions of questions on the Christian faith. Philip tried to answer, Bible in hand. One day, after coffee, the topic for discussion was Jesus’ cry of dereliction on the cross (Matthew 27, Psalm 22). Tom invited Philip to come and see the nightclub, which was a short walk away. On the way – appropriately under ink-black skies and a thunderstorm – Tom started unburdening himself about his past, the things in his life about which he felt guilt and shame.

In the nightclub – surrounded by purple neon lights – Tom and Philip carried on the conversation. Guilt and shame were exactly why Jesus went through the cross, the cry of dereliction – to carry the burden of our sin. And so we can pray to God and ask for forgiveness, as David does in Psalm 53. After hearing Philip read Psalm 53 aloud, Tom asked how he could do something similar. Philip explained that he could pray to God and ask for forgiveness in the same way, aloud or silently, alone or together. Tom said he would like to pray straight away, which he did.

Since then, Tom has been thinking, reading, meditating, and praying—he says he talks to Jesus like he talks to a friend. He quotes the Bible, attends a small group, interacts with Christians, and is methodically working out who Jesus is in the pages of Scripture, what he came to do, and how that should change him in every area of his life.

He has decided he wants to follow Jesus and testify to that publicly in baptism. Philip and Tom will be starting baptism preparation in the days to come.

Acts 29 exists to see churches planted worldwide so that people like Tom all over the globe can meet Jesus. This brings glory to God, blesses and enriches the church, and brings people from darkness to light, now and forever.