Passage: Acts 1:1-11
Intro: As far as the church is concerned, there are no passages more important than this one.
1. It is as clear a mission statement as you will find.
2. these words of Jesus fueled a world-wide revolution that has rescued and transformed hundreds of millions of people.
3. these words are found here at the beginning of the book of Acts, which is the history of the first 30 years of the churches existence
4. it is a story of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things through the grace of God.
5. written by that careful doctor, Luke, who was a participant in some of the events.
PP Acts 28:16
PP Colossians 4:14, written from prison in Rome
6. more than a history, this book is a mirror for us to look into.
7. we serve the same Jesus, so His words are addressed to us.
8. but 1971 years have passed, and a lot of barnacles have grown onto the ship of the church
Il) JB Philips quote in “The Young Church in Action”
"Surely this is the church as it was meant to be. It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity, or muscle-bound by over organization. These men did not make acts of faith, they believed; they did not say their prayers, they prayed. They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick. By modern standards they may have been naive, but perhaps because of their very simplicity, perhaps because of their readiness simply to believe, to obey, to give, to suffer,and, if necessary, to die, the Spirit of God found that he could work in them and through them, and so they turned the world upside down."
9. this series should change us as a church and as individuals within the church.
10. perhaps God will use it to call someone, or a number of people, into ministry, here or elsewhere.
11. let’s scrape off the barnacles and get back to a simpler vision; Jesus’ vision for the church.
I. Jesus’ Ministry Continues Under New Conditions.
1. there is an incredibly important little word hidden in v1, the word “began”
2. separate Greek word, emphasis!
3. referring to gospel of Luke, record of what Jesus “did and taught”
4. but it is what he “began to do and to teach”, which means it is going to continue.
5. two conclusions we can draw from this little word.
6. first, that what Jesus did and taught is the template for the continuation.
7. His ministry characterized by servanthood, the clear proclamation of the Good News, springing from complete faith in God.
8. and second, since He is gone, someone else will carry on His ministry.
9. but conditions have changed! There has been a sharpening of the focus of the message!
10. v3 states this sharpened focus: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
11. there is a reason that Jesus repeatedly showed Himself to His disciples, making the fact absolutely undeniable.
12. He was entrusting its proclamation to them; there could be no doubt.
PP) so it was a group revelation, a repeated revelation, and a convincing revelation,
13. the resurrection of Jesus Christ would be the very heart of the message, because it proved Him to be different, to be the perfect atoning sacrifice for sin.
14. this is the greatest of the new conditions
15. and the fact of the resurrection means that a dramatic change has taken place in the followers of Jesus Christ. V5
16. they have been redeemed, sins forgiven, and in our purified state are now fit dwellings for the Holy Spirit of God.
PP John 16:7
17. do we realize what this means? That the power and presence of Jesus Christ has been multiplied exponentially!
PP John 14:12
18. vv4-5 tell us what this new power is: the abiding and life changing presence of the promised Holy Spirit
19. huge numbers of people would experience by faith in Jesus Christ this transforming presence, and would through His power change the world.
20. Jesus’ death and resurrection has opened the way for the Holy Spirit of God to dwell not only with, but in believers.
21. as long as He is our power source and not the flesh, nothing is impossible.
II. The Organizational Plan
1. over the years, the organization of the church has become very complex.
2. but here, at the beginning, it wasn’t quite so convoluted.
3. clearly the CEO, the boss, is Jesus Christ.
4. He has earned that position not by intimidation or financial power or “who He knows”, but by the most awesome display of sacrifice in the history of the universe.
PP Revelation 5:9-10
-this should tell us something about leadership in the church.
5. and as the Master of the Church, He has the authority to set the vision for the church
PP Matthew 28:18-19
6. Jesus casts the vision, the central task, and seeks to reproduce that vision in the personnel of the organization.
7. in any organization, there is also
management.
8. their purpose is to make sure that the personnel has the tools and authority to fulfill the vision of the CEO.
9. the Holy Spirit fulfills that role. He is the power source, indwelling each believer, transforming our lives so that we are not only proclaimers of the vision, but also live it.
Il) would you buy a hair restoring treatment from a bald man?
10. we will see it over and over in Acts. When they are looking for leaders, servants, they look for someone “filled with the Holy Spirit.” He is crucial!
PP) AW Tozer, “The Holy Spirit could be absent from 90% of what the church today does, and nobody would know the difference.”
11. and finally, every organization has workers bees, the employees.
12. this is the “you” of v5
13. now understandably in this context, it is the employees that don’t quite get it.
14. v6 is classic. This small-minded, racist, nationalistic group has an idea of what the task is.
15. you see, they haven’t been baptized with the Holy Spirit yet!
16. but the great thing about this question is that it provides Jesus the perfect opportunity to clarify the task.
17. “take down your Israeli flag and get ready for a much bigger task.”
III. The Task Made Crystal Clear.
1. notice Jesus didn’t say “no” to future Jewish resurrection.
2. but He did say, “don’t be distracted by what may or may not happen in the future.
3. “BUT” instead of getting off on a side road, here is the task I am assigning you.
4. underline v8 in your Bibles. Notice these are not commands, but prophesies.
5. “you will receive power”…”You will be my witnesses, and not only in Jerusalem, but to the ends of the earth.
-the Holy Spirit will make sure of it
6. these are the last recorded words of Jesus on the earth. He ascended
7. can the task be any clearer? Can the power source be more specific?
8. the task is not political action or fund-raising or buildings or even church growth!
9. the task is to be witnesses of the power of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in everything we say and everything we do and everything we are.
10. is that really powerful enough?
PP Revelation 12:11
11. brothers and sisters, I believe the church of Jesus Christ, especially in America, has lost it’s rudder.
12. we have made our task the moralization of America, the election of Republicans, the dominion of the church over the governmental system, the numerical growth of the church.
13. I am consistently overwhelmed by the non-involvement of Jesus and his apostles in governmental issues, except when they were on trial.
14. the clear teaching of the Word of God, the clear vision of our Master Jesus Christ, is not restoring the kingdom to the United States, but for us to be Jesus’ character witnesses to the ends of the earth.
15. there are secondary issues that we might be involved in, but the task needs to be front and center.
Il) I applaud the work of groups like Crisis Pregnancy Centers, who meet the needs of women in crisis, and present the gospel of Jesus Christ. They keep the task the task!
Conc. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that our series in the book of Acts will be a prolonged history lesson.
1. I expect to be challenged at the core of my being.
2. as we study this book, we need to be open to a course correction.
3. will you join me in that desire?
4. not to find support for a position I already have, but to invite God to speak to us as a church and as individuals that make up the church of Jesus Christ.
