Being The Church!

Being The Church!
Acts 1:1-11

I loved Miss Patrick. She was from Somerset, Kentucky and she was my third grade teacher. She was awesome because she introduced us to some exciting literature. There is nothing that I enjoyed anymore than a action packed book. I like a lot of adventure and drama, and Miss Patrick was always taking us on Journey’s through Literature.

The book of Acts is a great read! The book of Acts is absolutely a spellbinder.
• It is the story of the early Church
• And how the early church started and developed.

Inside this book we find, Adventure and Drama.
• This book contains all that is needed to be a box office hit.

But the main thing, this book contains is Purpose.
• Purpose is something that so many people seem to be missing.
• Thus making the Purpose Driven Life such a big seller in Book Stores.

But not only do individuals struggle with Purpose….Often we find churches struggling with their identity and what they are to accomplish…What are we called to do?
• That kind of struggle is soooo Frustrating.

Most of our churches started off so strong…
• But sadly we can look around and see so many churches that are a shell of their former self.
• That breaks my heart because I believe God has a strong desire to use these Churches for the advancement of His Kingdom.

But what has gone wrong? In many cases…They have taken the eye off the ball!
• They have become distracted with life
• They have become distracted by their own comforts and desires.
• And pretty soon they are more concerned about being comfortable than they are faithful.

One thing we learn from the church in the book of Acts….
• Is that if you are going to be faithful….
• You will be uncomfortable as well.

So over the next several months we are going to get a little uncomfortable
• But in a good way.
• Because we are going to look at how God has worked in the past.
• Hopefully, build a desire and a craving to see Him work in similar ways today in the life of our church.
• To be the kind of church that God intended the New Testament Church to be.

So, let’s get crackin:

I love how Luke gets started. He is writing to Theophilus. Who is that?
• I have read many ideas on the matter. Some say he was an individual.
• Perhaps even Paul’s legal counsel in Rome. And they suggest that the books of Luke and Acts are written as a legal brief in preparation for Paul’s case.

But perhaps the secret to unlocking the Mystery of Theophilus is not with the question Who is that? Perhaps the real question is “What does it mean?”
• Theophilus literally means “Lover of God”
• You see, many feel this was not a specific individual but rather it was a symbolic reference to a specific group of God fearers.

So as he writes to this group…He explains what his purpose is for writing.
• So Luke begins with a reference back to the book of Luke.
• A former treatise that he wrote for what purpose…..to share what all Jesus began to do and to teach.
• In Luke 1:4…He said his purpose was to share the things of Christ so that “you may know the certainty of the things that have been taught.

You see, he wants these God fearers to have the information they need to know about Christ…
• So they can be the church
• Not play church but be the church…To be an authentic representation of Christ here on earth.

So that leaves