Acts - Acts 1:1-3

Recap

Last week we opened the series on the book of Acts by simply looking at the title of the book.

ACTS - The basic definition of act is to do something.

We aren’t going to be a church that simply thinks about it or talks about it…we will do something about it!

We looked at the group that preceded the apostles in scripture and discussed things they didn’t do! - THE PHARISEES

The pharisees didn’t worship

The pharisees didn’t change inwardly

The pharisees didn’t see value in the present

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Today we will actually jump into the text of the book of Acts...

This series we will go verse by verse to start and then go from there as we get into it!

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Intro Story

Have you ever tried to get back together with friends from a previous era of your life..

You remenisce about the “good old days” for a while…you laugh it’s awesome

But then you hit a wall...

Once you’ve found out their job, marriage and family status and where they live…you’re present relational connection is pretty much done.

Past experiences don’t facilitate present closeness.

This is a great concept to keep in mind as we open up the textual narrative of Acts.

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It’s a new genre

Acts 1:1 NKJV

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Luke opens the book of Acts by letting us know we are entering a new literary genre within the scriptures.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the gospels of Jesus Christ

They are the historical record of the words and works of the savior of the world.

When Luke was writing his gospel account, he was speaking in the past tense…this is what happened.

Now He is becoming a reporter and letting us in on current events…this is a different literary experience than reading history…when we read Acts we are reading the news.

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Luke is focusing on the present…because the time is now.

This is immediately a shift from his religious predecessors

Remember the pharisees focused on the prophets of old…they were obsessed with wishing they could go back and do things differently.

As amazing as Jesus time on earth was…Luke and the other apostles did not spend their time trying to go back to when Jesus was in his prime...

They understood that as good as what Jesus had done was…it was time to move forward

You can’t move forward and backward at the same time...

You can’t safely move forward and look backward (people driving without looking at the road.)

One of the greatest hindrances to a move of God in the present....is a move of God in the past.

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Jesus began…God’s not done!

I want to quickly notice one word that Luke uses in his opening statement of the book...

He tells us his first book spoke of what Jesus “began” to do and teach.

The word “began” has one implicit meaning in this context

THE WORK WAS NOT YET DONE!

As good as what Jesus had done was…and as far reaching as it was (the record could not be held in the world.) Luke said it was just a record of what He had begun to do...

Some of us need to know that we are simply sitting in the work that God has begun to do.

It won’t always be like it is.

We’re putting the definition of a product on something that is still in process.

{I AIN’T ALWAYS LIKED THIS CHURCH!} - This ain’t a finished product...

Your emotional healing is something He has begun to do

Your families relational connection is something He has begun to do

The revival we are experiencing is something He has begun to do!

IF IT’S NOT GOOD - HE’S NOT DONE!

We’ve only been talking about all that he has began to do and teach.

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Resurrected Jesus…still operated through Holy Spirit

Acts 1:2 NKJV

until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,

I read this and I was blown away by one phrase - “He, through the Holy Spirit”

Jesus was still ministering through the power of the Holy Spirit at this point in the ministry on the earth.

There is so much debate as to whether the Holy Spirit is still active today in the gifts.

Many churches are open to the concept of the Holy Spirit but are not open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit

(Imagine telling your family they can come to the house at Christmas…but don’t you dare bring those gifts.)

Many churches, ministries, and Christians want to live out their Christian lives without the interruptive and hard to fully understand or explain presence of the Holy Spirit.

JESUS HAD A PRETTY KILLER RESUME AT THIS POINT.

He had performed several dozen recorded miracles

He had garnered followings of tens of thousands

He had been transfigured on the mountain and stood in the same company with Moses and Elijah

He had been publically crucified

He had conquered death

He was other worldly at this point to such a degree that He told Mary not to touch Him

BUT EVEN WITH ALL OF THIS…HE STILL DEPENDED ON THE PRESENCE AND POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

If Jesus needed the Holy Ghost…I FOR SURE DO!

Hunger for revival is simply a desperation that is born out of realization of incapability!

The best realization you can come to in order to facilitate revival in your home is that of a dependence and desperation for the Holy Ghost!

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God’s not afraid to prove it.

Acts 1:3a (NKJV)

to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs...

I think many of us misinterpret the nature of God in that we take some scripture out of context to think we cannot question God.

Matthew 16:4 NKJV

A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

The same person makes these two seemingly contradictory stances.

Jesus tells the pharisees a wicked generation seeks a sign

Jesus also gives many infallible proofs to the disciples.

I want to take a moment here and let you know that Jesus providing proofs to the disciples speaks to this fact about God…He is not afraid of or intimidated by our questions.

God is secure enough in His deity to authenticate himself to a person who is looking for something solid to put their faith in!

God welcomes your questions

There is a difference between asking questions and seeking to disprove.

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You will find whatever you’re looking for

We live in a culture that has created the trend of deconstruction

Deconstructionist begin by looking at the institution of the church

Then they begin to question the validity of the word

Then they ultimately abandon faith altogether.

All the while there are men like Josh Mcdowell who set out to find truth and they come to God.

A conspiracy theorist was on a secular podcast talking about how he set out to study the conspiracy theory of God and came to knowledge of Jesus Christ as His savior.

Questions are amoral…but how we steward them determine what they become.

Questions can produce deeper investigation

Questions can produce doubt

Ultimately you will find what you are looking for.

If you are looking for a reason to believe God…you will find it

If you are looking for a reason not to believe in God…you will find it.

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One hit wonder…Jesus had one sermon series…THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Acts 1:3b (NKJV)

...being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Consider with me all of the theological implications of what Jesus has just done on the earth.

The law was fulfilled in Him…That’s one sentence that carries hundreds of years worth of theological and prophetic weight.

He was the second Adam…He is the reset for all of mankind after the fall of man…HUGE STATEMENT

God is now approachable by man through the work of the cross....HUGE STATEMENT

He could have taken forty days and unpacked any and all of these elements of truth.

Jesus had one point of conversation…one sermon topic after the resurrection…THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

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What is the kingdom of God?

The kingdom of God is a concept that is not found in the OT.

It was exclusive to Jesus…no one else thought in terms of bringing the synergy and peace of heaven to earth.

Jesus preached a societal manifestation that was being ever sanctified by the regenerative power of God.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD MANIFESTS AS A SUM OF THE WORK OF GOD IN INDIVIDUAL LIVES.

Community transformation is at the heart of what Jesus believed.

Family

Church

City

State

Nation

World

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The Kingdom is the gift of the Son to the Father

Every event of history is leading up to a grand gift giving moment between the son and father according to the Apostle Paul

1 Corinthians 15:23–27 NKJV

But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted.

Jesus was preaching the kingdom of God because every heart that turns themselves over to the finished work of Christ is another piece of the puzzle wherein the enemy is being made the footstool of Christ.

We get to be participants in the defeat of our enemy by simply receiving the work and manifesting the kingdom of God.

Things to know about the kingdom...

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1. It starts out tiny.

It can become easy to think that we aren’t seeing the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven when we aren’t seeing massive things happen.

Everything massive starts as something miniature.

Matthew 13:31–32 NKJV

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

The altar call that you responded to last week…the three days you read your bible…the fact that you’re at church today.

They are all micro manifestations of the kingdom of God in your life.

LARGE MOVES HAVE COME FROM SMALL STEPS!

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2. It doesn’t require talent

We can often assume that God could never use us because we don’t have the proper skill set.

God does not need for us to possess any type of talent…cuz he has plenty to spare

Matthew 25:14–15 NKJV

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.

It’s common to preach on this passage by focusing on what happens to each servant moving forward…but I simply want to show you one aspect.

The parable showing us the kingdom of heaven shows us a master investing talents into three servants WHO HAVE NONE!

If you don’t have talent…you are a perfect candidate to play a role in the kingdom!

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3. It’s not about titles

One of the biggest turn off’s to people in letting their lives be used as a propulsion of the kingdom is that you don’t always get credit!

We don’t know the names of the influential pieces of the Asbury revival

Communist China, Pakistan, remote parts of Africa…all are seeing revival…but we don’t know the leaders names.

When you say yes to the kingdom you are submitting yourself as a servant...

I’ve never gone to a concert where the setup crew had their names on the billboard outside.

He doesn’t get the glory when we get the credit.

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4. It’s not limited to our timing

I have had revivals…prayer meetings…gone on fasts…taken steps to try and initiate the move of God in my life and the churches where I’ve served.

Sometimes we do those things and nothing seems to happen.

Even to make that statement is a misunderstanding of the kingdom of God.

THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A PRAYER PRAYED…THAT DIDN’T WORK...

We are living out the answered prayers of generations before us.

SO RATHER THAN PRAYING, LORD MOVE IN OUR CHURCH…PRAY LORD WILL YOU MOVE IN THE CHURCH

RATHER THAN GIVING DIRECTION TO GOD…GIVE INVITATION AND THEN BE READY FOR THE MOMENT WHEN HE SAYS GO!

It very well could be now…or it could be in five years or in twenty years…MY JOB IS NOT TO KNOW WHEN GOD IS MOVING....MY JOB IS TO STEP INTO THE FLOW WHENEVER IT IS.

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We’ve seen tremors...

After Sunday…this week there has been hours spent praying in this room seeking more of what we experienced

I don’t know about you…but I want to be a manifestation of the kingdom.

Let your kingdom come…by letting your will be done in me as it is in heaven.