New Year, Same Mission

ME: Intro

Happy New Year!

I know that it is so cliche to say this,

But I truly cannot believe it is 2023.

It just feels like time is flying by!

Was everyone able to make it to midnight last night for the countdown?

Did you do anything fun for New Year’s Eve?

My wife, Stephanie, and I.

We had a Top Gun marathon.

I knew about some of the details,

But never actually saw either movie.

And I can see why it is a popular movie.

It satisfies that sense of a happy ending we all yearn for,

Where everyone surrounds the main character cheering him on,

And it seems like everyone lived happily ever after!

Whenever watching a popular movie or TV show,

The way it ends has the ability to influence the way we feel about the entire thing.

When it comes to a TV show especially,

As the finale gets closer,

All the people who have been watching are wondering how its all going to end.

Some of the most popular shows and movies maintain their popularity because of the conversations that have come from the controversial endings.

Generally, we want that happy ending,

Or a sense of closure.

Slide

For example, my grandparents got me the movie Dune for Christmas.

Now, I didn’t realize it was based off a book series and they were planning to do an entire trilogy.

So, here I was thinking I was just watching a good movie,

When one of the characters say,

“This is only the beginning.”

Then the end credits roll.

I started going bonkers!

What?

This isn’t how a movie is supposed to end!

I initially felt dissatisfied with how the movie ended.

Slide

If you similarly want that sense of closure to a story,

If you prefer the happy endings,

If you want a story with all the loose ends neatly tied up,

Then perhaps the ending of Acts leaves you initially disappointed.

Here we have been taken on quite a journey.

When suddenly, it ends in a surprising,

And some may say frustrating way.

The past several chapters have been all about Paul getting a trial before Caesar.

And now, we get to the end and nothing is even said about the trial!

Acts alone does not give us information about what happened to Paul.

We do know, however, by some of his letters that Paul both expected to be acquitted,

And was eventually released.

Church tradition has said that sometime around 62 Paul was released.

In Titus 3:12, he wrote about going to Greece,

In 2 Tim. 4:13, he mentions being in Troas,

And in 2 Tim. 4:20, he says he was in Miletus.

Romans 15 also says that Paul planned on going to Spain,

But most historians think Paul never made it to Spain.

Because in 64,

The Roman emperor Nero set fire to Rome and accused Christians of causing the fire.

This was one of many anti-Christian actions taken by Nero,

Who is also believed to eventually imprison Paul again,

Before having Paul executed sometime around 68.

But we do not know these things about Paul for certain.

Because Acts ends without us being told what happens to Paul.

So, we don’t know with absolute certainty how long he lived for after this.

Nor do we know where he would go next.

Acts just ends.

Imagine watching a TV show that just ended like this.

You might feel like the show didn’t even end at all.

Slide

Acts ends basically the same way the first Dune movie ends,

“This is only the beginning.”

Why?

Because Acts is not the biography of Paul.

It is about the work of Jesus Christ being accomplished by the Spirit.

It is the unstoppable progress of the gospel that began the church.

The four Gospels tell us about the work Jesus began,

Acts tells us about the work Jesus continued to do after His resurrection,

Work done by the Spirit through the Church.

And that is how Acts ends,

With Paul preaching the gospel of God’s Kingdom.

By ending with the Kingdom,

Acts keeps the King as the hero.

And it ends on a note of victory!

So, it is a fitting conclusion.

Although the book is finished,

The mission is not,

It is only the beginning...

Likewise, although a year is ending,

The mission is not.

Yes, it is a New Year,

But it is the Same Mission!

All Christians,

Whether it was during the first century in Rome,

Or the 21st century in Afton,

Are a part of the story of Acts.

Better yet, we are a part of the mission in Acts.

We are participating in the next chapters of Acts.

We are joining the mission of spreading the good news to the end of the earth.

Since the moment where Acts ends,

God has continued to enlist new witnesses year after year,

But as each new year has come,

The mission has been the same,

And it will remain the same until Christ returns.

Slide

So, as we look at the conclusion of Acts this morning,

We see the same...

Mission From the Past (Acts 28:17-22)

Mission of Today (Acts 28:23-28)

Mission That Lies Ahead (Acts 28:30-31)

Keep the mission from the past and the mission that lies ahead as our mission for today.

WE: Mission From the Past (Acts 28:17-22)

Now, we have to reach back a little bit to remember where we left off in Acts.

At the end of November,

In Acts 28:16, Paul had just arrived in Rome,

Where he was placed under house arrest,

And had a guard assigned to him.

This setup allowed Paul to welcome visitors.

Slide

So, our passage this morning picks up in vs. 17 with Paul’s house arrest in Rome.

If you remember,

All throughout Acts,

Paul’s mission from the past was to be a missionary to the Gentiles.

So, his pattern when he arrived to a new city was to go to the Jew first then the Greek.

So, this is the final time in Acts that Paul begins his ministry in a new city.

Incredibly, three days after being put under house arrest,

He still follows his same pattern,

By going to the Jew first.

Well…sort of.

Since he is under house arrest,

He technically calls all the Jewish leaders and has them come to his house, first.

But once they arrive,

He begins by telling them how he committed no wrongs against his fellow Jews,

Nor did he do anything against the Jewish law,

Slide

Before going on in vs. 18-19 to briefly summarize the complicated predicament that led him here.

On one hand,

He was declared innocent by the Roman authorities so he should be released.

But the problem is that the Jews still wanted him to be given the death penalty.

Therefore, Paul appealed to Caesar because he knew he was safer under Roman authority,

Rather than if he were set free.

And Paul makes a point to show how in all of this,

That he refused to bring any charges against his accusers,

Just like Jesus did with His accusers in the Gospels.

This is so incredible.

Because with both Paul and Jesus,

The accusers are the ones who are breaking the law.

They bring baseless charges against these men,

Blatantly breaking their own legal procedures,

Because they want to kill these men.

And despite all this,

As Paul says,

He never brought any charges against his hypocritical accusers.

Slide

So, Paul goes on in vs. 20,

Concluding his summary to the Jewish leaders here in Rome.

Getting to the reason he asked to meet with them.

Not to defend himself,

But to present the gospel to them.

Here again, we see his strategy of going to the Jew first coming into play.

Look at what he tells them.

He says, he is imprisoned because of the hope given to Israel,

The hope given to their people.

This hope is their Messiah, their Savior.

So, Paul draws them in by talking about the hope of their people,

Then, once he gets an even larger audience,

He goes on to tell them that Jesus Christ is that hope.

That Christ is the fulfillment of the Scriptures!

This relationship between Christianity and Judaism has been a crucial lesson all throughout Acts.

Slide

The gospel is not anti-Jewish,

It is the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies regarding their Savior.

And all who believe in it are saved.

So, the gospel is not anti-Jewish,

Nor is the gospel exclusively Jewish.

Communicating this message is Paul’s mission from the past,

Showing how every Jew who trusts in Christ as their Messiah is saved,

And every non-Jew who trusts in Christ is also saved.

This was the mission Jesus gave Paul.

Both in a general sense,

Where Jesus commissioned all disciples to be His witnesses in Jerusalem,

Then to Judea and Samaria,

Then to the ends of the earth.

But also in a specific sense,

Because Paul was called to be a missionary to the Gentiles.

He fulfilled this mission by going to the Jew first, then the Greek in every place he traveled to.

Now, Paul is once again in a new place,

Yet, he still has the same mission.

Likewise for us,

We are not necessarily in a new place, physically speaking.

But we are once again in a new year.

Yet we have the same mission.

Slide

Both in a general sense,

We have been commissioned to be Christ’s witnesses to the end of the earth.

But also in a specific sense,

As members of the body of FBC Afton,

Our mission is to love God and others, grow as Christ-followers devoted to serving one another, and multiply disciples.

To Connect, Grow, Serve, and Go.

And taking part in this mission will not always be a cake walk.

Paul’s specific mission, for example, was not all sunshine and roses.

In fact, that is what led him to his house arrest in Rome.

But God sovereignly works to fulfill the mission He has given us.

With Paul,

Slide

We see in vs. 21,

That the Jews all the way up here in Rome,

Are far enough removed from the hubbub happening on the other side of the Mediterranean,

All the hubbub that led to Paul’s arrest,

So, they say, they haven’t heard anything evil about Paul from HQ down in Judea,

And also no one has come to Rome saying anything bad about Paul.

Imagine the relief that must have been for Paul!

This is the first time in who knows how long,

Years, at least,

That Paul meets Jews who have no knowledge about him, his history, and his teaching.

So, they have no predetermined hatred and anger toward him!

They say in vs. 22,

All they have heard are rumors about this sect called Christianity,

And they know that it is condemned in other places.

So, for these reasons,

They genuinely want to hear Paul’s teaching about the hope of their people.

GOD: Mission of Today (Acts 28:23-28)

And just like that,

Paul’s mission from the past becomes his mission of Today in vs. 23-28.

Slide

Starting in vs. 23, with the Jews arranging a day to hear from Paul.

Notice, when that day came,

Not only do the leaders show up at his house,

But it says many more people show up to hear from Paul.

So, Paul decided that he was not going to waste a minute of that day.

His mission of today was gonna last the whole day.

It says, from dawn till dusk,

He taught them about the Kingdom of God,

Persuading them about Jesus,

From the Law and the Prophets.

This was the same thing Jesus did on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 after He rose from the dead.

This is twice now just in our passage,

We have seen Paul following the example of Christ.

He was teaching how the OT points to Jesus as the Messiah!

But it wasn’t just Paul who followed Christ’s teaching in this way.

All the apostles in Acts consistently followed this teaching throughout the entire narrative,

Right up to the very end.

Slide

And just like every other time Paul taught this lesson,

Vs. 24 says that some of his audience believed,

Genuinely trusting Christ as their Lord and Savior,

And being added to the Church!

But others sadly did not.

So, because some believed and some didn’t,

Vs. 25 says the people left disagreeing among themselves.

The specific turning point that they disagreed over was this provocative statement from Paul.

Which was once again,

Paul following the example from Jesus.

Because Jesus made the same statement in Matt. 13.

Paul quotes Isaiah 6 in vs. 26-27 as an account for the Jews unbelief.

Paul specifically gives credit to the Holy Spirit for this prophecy.

He was taking away any doubt that this came from Isaiah himself.

Rather, the Holy Spirit spoke these words through Isaiah.

Slide

So, Paul makes the connection of this prophecy to the present day Jews,

Pointing out how they had the eyes to see the signs,

And ears to hear the words,

But because their hearts were calloused and unresponsive,

They miss the work of God happening through Paul and the church right in front of them.

God’s Word promises that He would heal them through Christ,

If they would just believe!

But they did not trust in Christ.

So, the prophecy was right about their stubbornness.

Their unbelief and unwillingness to repent fulfilled what the Holy Spirit had foretold through the prophet Isaiah.

Slide

But also, at the very end of his teaching,

Paul adds how their rejection of Jesus Christ led to the Gentiles salvation.

Because the Gentiles listened to God’s invitation of salvation in Christ,

And believe,

And as a result,

Are preserved from the danger of God’s judgment.

YOU: Mission That Lies Ahead (Acts 28:30-31)

Then in vs. 30-31,

Acts ends in an open-ended yet triumphant way,

Foreshadowing the Mission That Lies Ahead.

Slide

First, it simply summarizes how over the next two years Paul lived in Rome paying to rent his house.

But it is not like Paul was just chilling in Rome for two years.

No, since Paul was allowed to have visitors,

He was welcoming all who would come to his house,

To preach and teach to anyone who was willing to hear.

Notice the two parts of his message in vs. 31:

The Kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These were the same two parts that he taught about all day long back in vs. 23.

So, what does this mean?

Well, it means Paul was in Rome for two years,

And when each new year came,

The mission stayed the same.

Paul continued to teach about the Kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These two topics naturally go together.

Because the Kingdom of God speaks of Christ’s rule over all of creation.

All blessings and advantages flow from His rule.

His Kingdom is an endless Kingdom.

And since Jesus has already come,

In one sense,

The Kingdom has already come.

But the Bible also tells us about a future reality to the Kingdom of God,

That is superior to our present reality of the Kingdom.

And that future reality has not yet come.

This means we are living in this tension of the “already-not yet” regarding the Kingdom of God.

Because the message of the Kingdom entails the good news of salvation.

And all who trust this message are already saved,

However, at the same time, we are not yet fully saved from every curse of sin.

We are still tempted,

We still suffer,

We still sin,

And we even still face physical death.

But this is no reason for despair.

Because Christ is the King!

He has power and authority even over the demons.

Satan seeks to oppose the Kingdom with the curse of sin,

But Christ has overthrown Satan.

So, even though we are not yet fully saved,

Because we are already saved,

We are certain to be fully saved from the curse of sin when the King returns!

Jesus taught a lot about the Kingdom in the gospels.

But He never gave a clear definition,

Rather, he taught about the Kingdom through parables.

Showing us that His Kingdom is a growing Kingdom that produces joy and knows no end!

And that is how Acts ends.

It does not end with Paul’s death.

It does not end in this hopeless manner.

It does not end with Paul as this helpless prisoner just waiting to die.

In fact, Acts seems to intentionally keep the focus from ending on Paul,

And instead ending on what Paul was preaching and teaching.

So, the book ends with God’s purpose being fulfilled.

It ends with the message of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God triumphantly going throughout Rome,

The heart of the Gentiles.

Acts began with teaching, establishing, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

And all throughout,

There was persecution, violence, murder, imprisonment, opposition, mobs, hurricanes, and shipwrecks.

And yet,

The Kingdom prospered!

And now Acts ends with the Kingdom going with all boldness and without hindrance.

Every disciple of Jesus Christ since the end of Acts has continued this same mission.

The mission from the past is still the mission of today and the mission that lies ahead.

WE: Conc.

And as this mission has remained,

The Kingdom has continued to prosper.

Slide

It is not just that the Kingdom prospered in spite of suffering.

Really, the Kingdom has prospered through suffering.

For example,

In 2 Corinthians,

Paul lists out all of his trials that he suffered through as opposition to the gospel,

Teaching how through many tribulations we enter the Kingdom of God.

Tribulations aren’t just the drastic and dramatic like what Paul experienced.

This means,

All of our troubles,

All of our setbacks,

All of our dangers not brought about through our own sin,

Are not random obstacles.

They are real opposition to the Kingdom.

But that opposition is within God’s sovereignty through which we enter His Kingdom.

It is important we grasp this.

Because it is so easy to use opposition as a reason to put off the mission of today,

As if we are waiting for the mission that lies ahead.

We treat them as if they are two different missions.

But the problem is we then let days, weeks, months, and even years go by,

Waiting for life to smooth out in a variety of ways,

To feel like we are ready for the mission of being Christ’s witnesses.

We can convince ourselves to wait using long-term circumstances.

For example,

We think we don’t have the time or career stability yet.

We think our kids are too young, or too old.

Or maybe we are waiting to get married or to have kids.

Or we are looking for the right home,

Or to be able to start putting into retirement.

We will even tell ourselves simple things like:

As soon as summer gets here,

Or as soon as the semester ends,

Or as soon as I get through this project at work or home,

Or as soon as I feel better,

And on and on the list could go.

But Acts confronts this way of thinking.

Because it shows us how this is not the way the Kingdom of God works.

Paul never waited for the mission that lies ahead to be Christ’s witness.

Even amid beatings, storms, and imprisonments,

Paul did not see these sufferings as a reason to put off the mission.

Rather, Paul just kept the mission from the past,

And the mission that lies ahead,

His mission for today.

Because the reality is,

The best way to measure how faithful we will be with the mission that lies ahead,

Is to measure how faithful we are with the mission of today.

I don’t say this to guilt trip any of us,

Or to make us feel remorseful about wasting time.

Rather, my hope is that Acts motivates us to not just wait for the mission that lies ahead,

But to keep the mission from the past and the mission that lies ahead as our mission for today.

Because as we enter this new year,

The reality is we have the same mission.

God has given us a mission for today.

And the mission that lies ahead is in God’s hands.

So, He guarantees the success of His mission.

For example,

In Acts,

We have seen how,

Prison, sickness, natural disasters, vicious enemies, opposing governments, self-absorbed and arrogant rulers, beatings, threats, internal disagreements, terrible theology, magic, mobs, lies, misunderstandings, ignorance, and stubbornness could not stop God’s mission.

It is an absolute guarantee!

Slide

This is clear from the way Christ worded the mission from the very beginning in Acts 1:8,

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Jesus gave the mission with absolute certainty of its success.

And the witnesses are joined and knit together by the Spirit into the body of Christ,

The church.

A quick overview of Acts reminds us of this.

Shortly after this mission in ch. 2,

Thousands of Jews gathered for Pentecost when a group of Christ’s witnesses miraculously began preaching in everyone’s native tongues.

Three thousand believe and are baptized,

The publicly identifiable way to mark off the members of Christ’s body.

Then it says, they also devoted themselves to fellowship, prayer, and the Lord’s Table,

Something we will be doing together in just a moment.

The church was living together in a way that was completely different from the people around them,

And it tells us how the Lord was adding to their numbers daily.

As weeks and months pass,

More believe the message.

Quickly, the Church grows to about five thousand by ch. 4.

And as it grows, problems came from within in chs. 5-6.

But the leaders in the church addressed the problems,

And the church came together to solve these problems,

Showing that this group of people spent time together and cared for one another.

But there was also opposition from the outside,

As the church continued to be Christ’s witnesses.

This opposition was not insignificant.

In ch. 7,

The first Christian was killed for his faith in Jesus,

And in ch. 8,

Enemies of Christianity were going house to house to arrest Christians.

But God worked through this opposition,

Because as the Church scattered from Jerusalem,

They continued to be Christ’s witnesses.

And disciples begin showing up as far as Caesarea in ch. 10.

But just before that,

We see an incredible conversion of one of the leading enemies in ch. 9,

Saul, who would later go by the name of Paul.

And he wastes no time being Christ’s witness.

By the time we get to ch. 11,

He is called by the church and the Spirit to become a missionary to the Gentiles,

After spending a year in that church teaching all the people there.

But again and again throughout Acts,

Stories of Christians caring for one another are sprinkled in.

A type of care that extends across all human barriers.

As decades pass,

The Church continues planting more and more local churches,

With that once former enemy, Paul, leading the charge.

Reports and letters begin to be written to churches in Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, and elsewhere.

So, as we conclude our study in Acts.

Let’s highlight some themes about the local church and its members,

To transition us to what we will be studying next going into the new year.

First, lets start with the baseline:

Members proclaim the message of Christ the Savior and Lord.

It is the way of salvation and the good news.

As Christians, we respect worldly authority,

But our ultimate allegiance is to Christ.

Local churches are all interconnected as the Church.

We are the church.

We use the word church to identify ourselves in our life together

We belong to something larger than ourselves.

And when we assemble under our corporate identity,

We possess a special power,

The power of our Lord Jesus Christ is present when we assemble.

Next, it is clear that the first step of membership into Christ’s body is always baptism.

We are baptized as members into the local church,

Where the life and authority of the local church shapes and orients our lives.

Meals and praying and schedules and financial and property decisions and provisions are oriented around the other members of the church.

We see this pattern from the early church throughout Acts.

When we add all this up,

One thing becomes obvious:

Slide

To be a Christian is to belong to a church.

A person does not get saved then go on to wander aimlessly on their own.

We repent and are then baptized into the fellowship of a local church.

Trusting in Christ as Lord means being united to Christ’s body.

This is where we get the idea of Church Membership.

To be a church member is to be an individual who constitutes a church.

Because the Church is a body,

The Church is its members.

You cannot talk about a local church without talking about its members.

It is like talking about a family, a nation, or a team without talking about its members.

It is what each of these things is.

So, now, as we begin 2023,

We must keep the mission from the past and the mission that lies ahead as our mission for today.

Our general mission is still to be Christ’s witnesses.

But the specific mission of the members of FBC Afton is still to love God and others,

Grow as Christ-followers devoted to serving one another,

And multiply disciples.

To connect, grow, serve, and go.

Yes, it is a new year,

But it is the same mission.

My hope is that our time in Acts has helped us to clarify this mission.

And as we enter this year,

We hope to continue to clarify this mission,

But we also want to clarify biblical leadership and biblical membership.

We want to clarify these three areas to unify ourselves as a body,

Which in turn will glorify God.

Lord willing, in the weeks to come,

I will have opportunity to talk further about this idea of clarify to unify to glorify.

But as we wrap up this morning,

Focusing on our mission for today,

When we talk about connecting as members of the body,

Essential to connecting are the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Table.

As we have already talked about,

These patterns emerged from the example of the early church in Acts.

Slide

So, this morning,

We are going to keep the mission from the past as our mission for today,

And we are going to celebrate the Lord’s Table as members of Christ’s body.

If you are here and have not trusted in Christ yet, then you are not a member of His body.

And if that is the case,

Then there is no point for you to participate in the Lord’s Table.

But Acts is clear that if you repent and confess Christ as Lord you will be saved.

And you can do that this morning as we prepare to take the Lord’s Table.

So, I am going to lead us in a prayer,

Then, as some music plays, the table will be open,

You will be invited to come forward and take the bread and the cup then return to your seat.

If you are unable to come up,

We will have some trays coming around to you as well.

Once you have the bread and the cup,

Take a moment to pray about the mission God has for you today,

Confess any sins that need confessing,

Or simply just reflect on Christ and His loving sacrifice for you.

You can do this by yourself or together with your family.

But after everyone has a moment to prepare,

I will come back up here,

And we will take the bread and the cup together.

Pray.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed,

He took the bread, gave thanks, then He broke it, and said,

“This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

So, together we eat.

Likewise, Jesus also took the cup after supper, and said,

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

So, together we drink.

If you would,

Please stand,

As we continue to worship Christ together in song.