Discipleship in the Book of Acts

The point of our series in looking at Discipleship in the New Testament is life change. That is what we are shooting for. That is the destination. That is the metric as to whether or not we are accomplishing our purpose. Are we allowing the word of God and things within it by the Spirit of God to change our hearts?

Discipleship

(Slide) When we say, “Yes” to Jesus… what we are saying is we want to be His disciple...

You are my master and I am your apprentice (authority)

My priorities will be reordered according to your priorities (mission)

My loves will be reordered according to your loves (posture)

Discipleship is continuing to be transformed as children of God who have allegiance to Jesus, His teachings, and who hold onto faith until He comes again.

I think you will find that as we journey through this series, Discipleship in the New Testament, it will be invaluable to be reading the books of the Bible each week.

Can I mention… unless we are reading our Bibles, our growth, maturity, our ability to understand God and His plan is greatly diminished. Constantly reading, studying, memorizing, taking in the Word of God is how God has chosen to reveal Himself. We can not know Him deeply and intimately apart from His revealed Word.

Helpful hint: Look at the book, take the chapters, and divide by 5 or 6 and commit to read that many each day if not the whole thing

As the weeks go on and we get past Acts and Corinthians, the chapters get less and less.

Join us at ReST each week as we will be discussing that Sundays book (9am downstairs) and glean from one another what you are finding and seeing.

(Goal): The outworking of the Gospels is what we find in the book of Acts. “The ongoing act of believing in Jesus will inevitably result in a distinctive way of relating to others and carrying oneself in the world, a Spirit-empowered transformation that surely encompasses all of life.” -Benjamin Wilson

If we were to build on the last few weeks:

Matthew: Being transformed into children of God who have allegiance to Jesus, His teachings, and who hold on to faith until He comes again.

Mark: Obedience, Humility, and Boldness (counting the cost of discipleship… throughout all four gospels… but PJ focused on it here)

Luke: A vessel of God turning outward to a needy world, engaged in the ministry of reconciliation: God reconciling people to Himself

John: Believe, Follow, and Abide

The outworking of the gospels is what we have in the book of Acts. It tells the story of us. From those who give everything to God fully commit and travel the known world in a desire to tell everyone and anyone that will listen; to those that only pretend to be committed and try to serve God and themselves; and to those who are so against God they do all that they can to thwart the work of God. All of us can find a piece of our story in the book of Acts.

What discipleship looks like in the book of Acts is a new family (made one by faith in Christ) coming together in the power of the Holy Spirit to enact and walk in a Kingdom obedience, living into Kingdom reality that is and is coming.

If you have your Bibles or on your devices would you turn to Acts 10:9-16 … if you are able, would you stand with me as I read God’s word this morning.

“The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.” Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.”

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray… thank you. You may be seated.

Me

The other day I dawned on the blower here at the church building. On Thursdays, I take time to do a little manual labor around the facility and this day I was blowing/sweeping the parking lot. We have one of the cool backpack blowers (which I’ve always wanted to use). Those types of engines usually take a fuel mixture of oil and gas. You get a gas can fill it up and add an additive to it and it lubricates the motor.

I went into the garage and looked for the right fuel. I found the gas tanks but they weren’t labeled (wide-eyed)… I don’t want to put the wrong fuel in the blower… it gave me flashbacks though to a pretty traumatic experience I had shortly after college.

In the year 2000, I lived in Europe. I was in Europe for 3 years after I finished school. The last year in Europe, I was an intern at the school I had graduated from. I was tasked with driving with a friend to England to get some Costco-sized clothes dryers because they did not exist in Austria.

Tell the story...

Somewhere along the way God worked a miracle… it should not have ran.

I had diesel on my warm weather clothes (coat, gloves, hat) and throughout the trip reminded me of my pride, stupidity, and God’s grace.

That experience would be a parable/metaphor for what my time in Europe would be like. Often times I found myself trying to do Gospel work with the wrong fuel. Fueled by pride, arrogance, elitism, exceptionalism, and the best of intentions I would walk away from that time without much Kingdom benefit. I learned a lot but I didn’t leave any community better than when I had come.... in some ways I made it more difficult.

It would take years before I would look back and realize many of the ways I was not walking in the power of the Spirit of God. I was putting in the wrong fuel (if you will)

It’s the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling each of us that gives the power to effectively bring about the will of God by the grace of God. It is the fuel in the vehicle.

We

Maybe you have experienced that as well. There is an effort to live out God’s desire for your life (which you want to be your desire) but you are frustrated and continue to fail.

Sometimes we try and emulate or imitate others and find ourselves still falling short.

I had a good buddy in High School, Eric Edgin, who was one of the fastest people I knew. He would go back and forth with Ryan Wiggins who was the fastest sprinter in our school. During track season they would exchange the positions they would hold (1st and 2nd). Ryan was a couple grades ahead of Eric and I so eventually Eric would take most of the school records. Here’s the thing though… Eric hardly worked out… his training program before track season was eating potato chips!!! I’ve tried following Eric’s program but it has not produced anywhere near the same results.

Churches are notorious for copying each other for what “works”… but what we need is not a copying machine… (MAC advertisement of 2004) we need is the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit for obedience and boldness for carrying out what God has already called us to. He is the Fuel!

God

God tells us this in the Book of Acts.

He would tell the disciples just before he ascended into heaven, Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””

This witness is not only in declaring in words but also in way of life, way of being, way of interacting with neighbors, friends, and enemies.

So they were to wait… wait for the power of God to come upon them, indwell them, and then go to the ends of the Earth.

In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit falls on the Jewish celebration time of Pentecost (first fruits). What happens in the room where the Holy Spirit falls on the believers is quite powerful… as powerful and excitingly similar and powerful as the giving of the law at Sinai with Moses. It’s significant:

Acts 2

Sinai:

Wind, Fire, Thunder

People

Giving of the Law

Tablets of stone

3000 killed

Birth of the covenant nation

Acts 2:

Wind, Fire, Voices

People

Giving of the teacher (marvellous work of God)

Tablets of the heart

3000 saved

Birth of the church

New covenant has arrived in a way parallel to the arrival of the Mosaic

Acts 2:14-40 Peter’s sermon explains this is a change of ages, covenants, aeons, and he begins with the paradigmatic statement of the Gospel.

But even Peter would not fully comprehend what God wanted to do. 3000 souls had been saved in Acts 2 and another 5000 in Acts 4 after the healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful in Jerusalem. Straight up revival, an awakening… but there was a problem… they weren’t going… they were staying… but Jesus said, “GO into all the world… and in your going… make disciples” … even at this point… no one has been going to the non-Jews. It stayed a Jewish faith. But God had bigger plans (can I get an Amen?)

In Acts 8 everyone started to leave Jerusalem because of the murder of Stephen.

In Acts 9 we have what might be a pivotal piece to the book of Acts and beyond.

Peter is in Joppa… residing at Simon’s house on the water.

Acts 10:9-16 “The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.” Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.”

From here Peter would meet messengers of a Roman centurion whom God told to send for Peter… Peter would go to Cornelius’ home and before he would finish his gospel message, the Holy Spirit fell on all of them there listening to Peter… they all became born again and were now brothers with Peter… they became family in that moment.

This one moment is the watershed moment in the book of Acts where we see the Holy Spirit indwelling and coming up on Gentiles.

The book of Acts is a new family (made one by faith in Christ) coming together in the power of the Holy Spirit to enact and walk in a Kingdom obedience, living into Kingdom reality that is and is coming

What if Peter said “no” … well he initially did, didn’t he… but as he saw God’s plan unfold… he was all in. Luke goes ahead and takes another part of the next chapter in his manuscript to recount what Peter said to the church when he returned… when you think about precious real estate on a manuscript and writing things… you are judicious… but God felt it so important that he would have Luke write it twice!

You

What has God called you too?

Have you felt yourself running on empty or the wrong fuel by chance? Are you angry, tired, depressed, frustrated, lacking hope, lacking vision, lacking direction, lacking any real significant relationship with God? What kind of fuel are you putting in the tank?

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”” tells us that we can not do it apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Are you sealed by Him? Are you born-again? Have you given your allegiance over to Jesus and said, “Not my will but yours be done”.

If so, the Spirit of God resides in you… you’ve got the right fuel!

But isn’t it wild too that God invites us into this journey? He invited Peter. It wasn’t new… Peter had heard Jesus talk about what is clean and unclean… he had heard how it’s not what goes into someone that makes them unclean but what comes out of the mouth because it proceeds from the heart… good or bad, that’s how you know.

God is inviting you to live out what you know to be true about him and what you know to be true about you.

What is true about God? Ex 34:6-7 “The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.”

What is true about you? That God loves you John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

That God loves the world John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

(Camp on this for a sec)

He wants to use you to be his vehicle to get this out… but it can only happen if you have the right fuel… Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””

We

What might happen this week if we, at the beginning of the week, at the beginning of the day said, “God, would you fill me a fresh and a new with your Holy Spirit, come upon me in power that I might be your witness today?”

What might happen if we said throughout the day, “God if you would have me to do something, would you speak to my heart, would you prompt me in my soul, heart, spirit, to get up like Peter and be about your work?”

What might happen if we took time to write down this afternoon what we know to be true about God, what we know to be true about us in Jesus, and be about working those things out in our home, amongst friends, in our work-place, in our play spaces, in our going in and going out?

If we take these things to heart, this is the stuff that revival is made of. If we look to DO these things, this is what changes lives.

What discipleship looks like in the book of Acts is a new family (made one by faith in Christ) coming together in the power of the Holy Spirit to enact and walk in a Kingdom obedience, living into Kingdom reality that is and is coming.

Would you stand with me. If you want to give yourself to Jesus, if you want your plan to yield to his because it is so much better, would you consider going and allowing one of those in the back to pray with you? In giving your heart, your life, your allegiance to Jesus is what we were created for… in Him we find our purpose, our meaning, our essence, those who are lost are found, those who are weary find strength, those that are hurting find healing, He is good.