Making Conversation: Promised Conversation

The Rodeo

The rodeo is in town. Sold out shows. Some great horsemanship. Professional cowboys and cowgirls at the highest level. The Los Fresnos Rodeo calls itself the biggest little rodeo in Texas. What if we all showed up and the horses weren’t bucking, the calves weren’t running, the bullriders fell off the bull barely out of the gate, and the clown wasn’t all that funny? We’d want our money back. The Biggest Little rodeo in Texas would be a broken promise. We hear the word “biggest” and we have expectations.

We’re used to having promises broken. We know the restaurants we don’t go to anymore. We know the car dealers we won’t buy from any more. We know the Capn Crunch just doesn’t taste like it used to.

People put church in that category. The data tells us that around 40% of our neighbors here used to go to church, and are no longer going to church, and don’t really want church. They still want Jesus. But they don’t like the church. And when you start digging into that 40%, you begin to hear a running theme… broken promises. Whether it was being treated badly, abuse, or simply finding the church to be irrelevant to their lives, underneath it all is broken promises… unmet expectations.

But this room, this sanctuary, this worship service, this Table, this life… this is all Promise. This is where Jesus delivers on his promise to forgive, and to save, and to give us life. Every week. And our Bible lesson today is all part of that very same promise.

The Task

Our story is found in Acts, but the beginnings of the story go all the way back to the very beginning of time and our first parents, Adam and Eve in their garden. God made the world. God made a beautiful world that was full of perfection and harmony. He made Adam and Eve. And then he gave them a task.

Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.”

There are a couple of tasks there, one of which is to subdue and rule the earth. Adam and Eve were created as co-rulers with God and that rule and kingdom was to be spread over all the earth. The other task here, the one we are focusing on is the first… be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. God’s intent for Adam and Eve, who were created in God’s image, was to fill the earth with God’s image and his glory. The entire earth was to be full of those who reflect God’s glory and his love for his people and creation.

And we know what happened. Adam and Eve sinned. They were kicked out of the garden. And as sinners, no longer capable of filling the earth with God’s image. It looks as though God’s plan has been ruined. But God promises to make everything right through an offspring of Eve.

The Promise

But hundreds, thousands of years go by. The earth isn’t full of God’s image. In fact, it seems as though that will never happen. Until God shows up and has a conversation with Abraham. And you heard earlier what that promise was to Abraham:

Genesis 12:1-3 “I will make you into a great nation...all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Nations and kings will come from you. I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore.”

The task that Adam and Eve failed? God is saying, I’m going to do something about that. I’m going to take care of it. The command to fill the earth with God’s image is now a promise. It’s a promise because humans are incapable of doing it. They only fill the earth with bad things… that’s the story of Noah and the Flood. Now God is saying that he is going to fulfill that task himself. I will make you a nation. I will make your offspring too many to count. I will. I will. And oh, by the way… I will also fill the earth with my rule. Kings are part of the promise.

What’s funny is that, again, many centuries go by. While there is a nation that comes from Abraham, it’s not a nation that fills the earth. God’s name and fame and glory and love and grace and forgiveness do not spread far and wide. The people who love and worship God are not as many as the sand on the seashore. Everything seems stuck in a little piece of land in the Middle East. and for the most part, the nation itself is disobedient.

The Promised One

It looks bleak until the offspring that was promised to Eve finally shows up. God is going to make good on his promise, finally. A baby is born in Bethlehem and here’s the promise when an angel appears to a man named Joseph:

Matthew 1:21 “You are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

There is that promise language… He will. He will save. And that’s what happens. Years later, Jesus dies as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. God fixes the sin problem, just like he promised Adam and Eve. But God is also making good on his promise to Abraham. And that’s where our story picks up in Acts 1.

In Acts 1, Jesus has risen from the dead, and he is spending his last few days with his best friends before He leaves to go be at the right hand of His Father. One of the big questions for his friends is what will happen when Jesus leaves? Now what? Is it over? Will we spend our days simply teaching what you taught and living out what you taught and talking about the resurrection and that’s it?

Before Jesus leaves the earth, he leaves with Promise on his lips. I find this fascinating. If you were to take a poll of Christians, even Christian leaders, you would think that before Jesus left this world, he left us with a bunch of commands. “Make sure you do this. Make sure you do that. Don’t do this. Don’t do that.” The last words from Jesus to his best friends and followers were all Promise. Acts 1 is one big promise.

The Holy Spirit

Here’s what the Promise looks like. It comes in three parts. First, Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit. God will continue to be with His people. Jesus himself will continue to be with His people and He will use the Holy Spirit to continue His work. He says:

You will be baptized with the Spirit.

You will receive the power of the Spirit.

Jesus isn’t leaving His disciples and followers to fend for themselves. Jesus will continue His work of grace, forgiveness, and life through the Spirit. And… they will be given the power of the Spirit. But this power isn’t some vague motivating person… it’s not even a spectacular sign (which is how that power is treated these days). This promise of a baptism and power of the Spirit is a means to an end… and the end we find in the next part of the Promise.

Witnesses

God hasn’t forgotten His promise to Abraham. Jesus comes and He fulfills the promise to be a blessing to the nations. But that promise will be experienced and lived out by His people.

You will be my witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

You will be. Too often this verse is viewed as a command. But that’s not the language being used here. This is the same kind of Promise language we find in the Old Testament when God is promising work out His salvation plan for His people. You will be. The task is huge. Filling the earth with Christ followers. But the success of that task is not up to us. Jesus Promises.

This is all promise. 3 times in Acts 1, Jesus uses the phrase "you will". The last thing he wants his disciples to hear is a Promise. You will be baptized by the Holy Spirit. You will receive power. You will be my witnesses. Words of promise. Words of comfort. Words of hope.

This is how God is going to fill the earth with His image. This is the fulfillment of Genesis 1:28. The command in Genesis 1:28 is to multiply and fill the earth with those who love God. Adam and Eve failed. And now here in Acts 1, Jesus is Promising that He will use His followers to finally complete that mission. We look at that task in Genesis 1:28 in terms of having bigger families. That’s certainly how Israel looked at that task. But this is bigger than that. It’s the Proclamation of the Gospel that will multiply and fill the earth with Jesus followers. Acts 1 is how Genesis 1 will finally happen. Acts 1 is how the Promise to Abraham will be fulfilled. From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, Jesus will have His witnesses of His grace, his life, and His salvation in the forgiveness of sinners.

Jesus’ Return

There is one more piece to the promise here… one that often gets overlooked. Jesus promises to use His best friends to fill the earth with the gospel. And then a glorious cloud shows up and Jesus is exalted to the right hand of the Father. Jesus goes into heaven. The angels tell His followers this:

He will return

The Promise of the Holy Spirit… that has happened. It happened just days after Jesus went into heaven. And here there is the promise that Jesus will return. It’s very easy for us to hear these words and say, yeah, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit. He promised to return and come back. But the other Promise? You will be my witnesses? That Promise is on the same level as the Promise of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ promise to return. So often, Acts 1:8 is treated as if it is a command. You get the Spirit… now go be my witnesses to the end of the earth. That’s not the language here. You will be my witnesses. That’s a promise.

That promise should give us hope. It’s not about whether or not we’re up to the challenge. It’s simply that as we take More of Jesus into more of life… where we live, where we work, where we play… Jesus will use us as His witnesses for the Good News of Who He Is and What He does for us. Jesus will use us as witnesses of His grace, His forgiveness, His life, His salvation. He promises.

Christ’s mission, using His people: From Jerusalem to the end of the earth

This is not our mission. This is Christ’s mission… to fill the earth with Himself. And He promises to use us. We’ve been talking these first weeks of 2023 about Making Conversation. Jesus promises that those conversations will take place. He Promises to use what we say about Him to connect people to Himself. I find a lot of hope there. Because I’m always fearful that I’m not saying enough or doing enough for Jesus. And Jesus here is says, I’ve got this. This isn’t on you. I promise to use you.

Last night, Lisa was passing out our kids booklets that have the Jesus story. She made the comment, “it feels like we haven’t given much out.” And there was something to that. After the rodeo starts, there aren’t as many hanging around the vending area. And I was thinking about this Promise. It may not feel like much, but Jesus has Promised to use it to connect people to himself. And what’s interesting is one girl who got a booklet from Lisa put down her food and began reading the booklet. Jesus was already using Lisa, already using the Table to proclaim His name and fame to the ends of the earth. That’s Jesus making good on His Promise. It’s that Promise that gives us hope whenever and wherever we are having conversations about Jesus.

Let’s Pray.