Acts 1:1-11 - God’s Power through God’s People #1: Us
Today we are beginning a new series. Funny enough, it’s from a book about new beginnings. Today we are beginning a series on the book of Acts, the beginnings of the new covenant, the new relations between God and mankind, the new life found in Christ, the new group of people known as the church… the beginnings of so much of what we know about connecting with God.
Beginnings can be quite humble. It’s been said that the first electric light was so dim that a candle was needed to see its socket. One of the first steamboats took 32 hours to chug its way from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles. Wilbur and Orville Wright’s first airplane flight lasted only 12 seconds. And the first automobiles traveled 2 to 4 miles per hour and broke down often. Carriages would pass them with their passengers shouting, “Get a horse!”
But the beginning of the church was quite impressive. Yes, it has grown to a multi-billion group of people over its some-2000-year history, but it really did start out with a bang – 3000 people saved in 1 day. For this sermon series, though, I’m not just recounting history. What I would like to do over the next few weeks is look at the characters in the book of Acts, look at the people that God used to accomplish His purposes. Yes, we may look at a couple of scoundrels in there as well, but I’d like to observe some real people who knew God and were used by Him. Let’s read 1:1-12.
This book was written by Luke, not one of the original disciples but a well-educated Jewish convert to Christianity in its 1st few years. He also wrote the book named after him, also written to this fellow named Theophilus. It’s possible that Luke, being a doctor, was a slave to the Romans, which was a normal Roman practice, and Theophilus was Luke’s master, hence the proper title “most excellent”. That’s only speculation, though.
What we do know is that Luke first wrote to Theo about Jesus’ life, and then wrote this book as a sequel or continuing story about Jesus’ followers. In this 1st paragraph, Luke sums up the major points of Jesus’ ministry: His teaching, His life, His dying and suffering, His rising from the dead, His appearances afterwards, and then the main points of today’s section – His ascension to heaven, His sending of the Spirit at Pentecost, and then His eventual return.
Going through this passage, we can read that “Jesus began to do and teach” while He was here on earth. I find that interesting. He began, but didn’t finish. He’s not done working, at least on one level. Yes, he said the words from the cross, “It is finished.” The work of the sacrifice was done. The anger of God had been appeased. No more blood sacrifices in order to be right with God – those are done. But He’s still working. He’s still teaching. He’s still drawing. He’s still saving. He’s still praying for us. His work isn’t over; He’s not finished with us yet.
In v2, you can notice something else worth mentioning. Jesus was giving instructions “through the Holy Spirit”. So here’s Jesus, one of the members of the Godhead, 100% God, 100% man, and the Holy Spirit was helping Him. I thought as I read this, that if Jesus needs the help of the Holy Spirit in order to get things accomplished, how much more do I? How much do I try to do without asking for His help? How much good do I try to accomplish on my own steam? Just a good question for each of us to ask ourselves.
Next, in v3, we read that in the 40 days following His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and spoke to them about the kingdom of God. I’ll speak about that in a second or two, but I want to mention this interesting idea. He told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit was given. Hmm – Jerusalem. The city they were currently in, also the city in which Jesus was crucified. Hostilities were running pretty high right then. Jerusalem might not have been the safest place to be. But I like what theologian Matthew Henry said about this: “There (Jerusalem) Christ was put to shame, and therefore there he will have this honour done him, and this favour is done to Jerusalem to teach us to forgive our enemies and persecutors.”
Isn’t that good? Sometimes Jesus leaves us in places we don’t want to be because He has plans for us, plans for us to show His forgiveness and grace to others, plans for Him to use us in our mission on earth. There’s something about Jesus saying to us, “If you will just be where I want you to be, you will see me do great things.”
Also in these conversations, Jesus mentions the Holy Spirit – v5. Now, He had spoken about the Holy Spirit before, notably in the so-called Upper Room Discourse, on the night He was betrayed. His followers had heard of the Holy Spirit, and they were going to know much more about Him very soon.
Now, we find in the disciples in v6 asking when Jesus would bring about the kingdom of God, when would it all happen. What is the kingdom of God? Well, that’s not an easy question to answer. It’s an already-here-but-not-quite kind of thing. The kingdom is where He is regarded as the ruler; but He was rejected, so His literal kingdom on earth is postponed for now. Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God had arrived, and in a sense, because He had come, so had the kingdom. But the good news is that there’s still more to come. Someday all evil will be defeated, Satan will have no power, and God will be seen completely as King.
Sounds great. No wonder the disciples wanted to see it, and they wanted to know when. Jesus didn’t scold them or blame them for that question, but He didn’t answer it either. The people were waiting for God’s promises to come about, but, and I’m sorry to say, there are some things we don’t need to know… time and schedules least of all. He has told us all that we need to know, not want. We need to keep waiting for God to act. Our job is not to know but to live.
Which is what v8 speaks about. Jesus said that we would have power to be His witnesses, to live for Him. His power is what will make the difference through us – Christian living is about having His power to be His witness. We don’t need to know everything, or have all our questions answered, before we serve Him.
Verse after verse speaks of His power for us. 2 Peter 1:3 – “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him.” 2 Timothy 1:7 – “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” Ephesians 6:10 – “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” And Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” His power is given to us through the Holy Spirit for us to live for Him and show who He is.
Sometimes, though, V9, clouds hide our view of Him. But His mission and purpose for us hasn’t changed. V11 – some people stand around waiting for the return of Jesus, when they should be doing what He asked. Waiting for the great by-and-by, missing the here-and-now.
As a conclusion, I’d like to share an article I found written by a Christian woman named Lauren. I think it expresses quite well how we should react to today’s passage from Acts 1. The article is called, “Laundry Starch, Broken Nozzles, and Being Used of God.”
She writes: My husband works as a programmer for a very reputable company in town and one of the strict requirements of the job is to have nicely ironed dress shirts. I try and make sure that Nathan always has shirts waiting for him to slip into in the morning. But just the other day I pulled out my new can of starch to start on my ironing and to my dismay, the nozzle was broken!
Cans of starch are kept at such high pressure so that you can spray them. However, this also means that when the nozzle breaks the contents become unusable. As I went to the trash to throw away my still full can of starch, it hit me that often times our lives can be just like that can of starch....
We can be filled with good things - wonderful things! We can know the scripture backwards and forwards, we can sing every hymn in the book, and we can recite all of the "right" things to do. But if we don't know how to be open and available for the Lord to use us and if we don't put the things we know into practice than our "nozzle is broken" so to speak. You don't have to be talking to people all the time, discipling someone, or writing to be used of God. Being used of Him often times means just loving your siblings, your children, your spouse, your parents, etc. It means serving, being diligent, and putting into practice the things that you have learned. It means being of faith, staying humble, and being respectful. It means making sure that your words are filled with truth, love, graciousness, kindness, thoughtfulness, etc.
I know that I want to be an open, usable vessel for the Lord to flow through.... Don't you? Let's not be like that can of starch, filled with good things yet still not flowing with the love of the Lord.
Folks, Jesus has given us the power to live godly lives. Let’s check our lives, and ask ourselves, are we living in God’s power? If not, why not? What is holding us back?
