3.1.21a 4.16.2023 FCC West Salem Acts 1 The Church is More than a Building, but we Still Must Build the Church

Start:

Entice: Someone overhearing what I said this morning and then hearing what I will now say might think me crazy or preoccupied. I talked about the Church this morning and I’m going to talk about it right now. Most of us have a mixed relationship with the Church. We live in a culture in which spiritual development has become so personal that it is private. When faith becomes private it is

1. Not terribly effective.

2. Not Biblical.

Engage: Jesus said He would build His Church. After the resurrection He spent time going over the blueprints with the Apostles.

He reviewed the Biblical, what we call the “Old Testament” basis for His ongoing ministry amongst the Apostles.

I’m certain He reviewed many of the new or revised messages He had taught them through some 3 years of Ministry.

He taught them to balance their internal spiritual discernment with external ministry.

Expand: Acts 1 is a summary of what He said and how the earliest Christian community began to execute His instructions. Twenty-one centuries later far too many of God’s people have forgotten those lessons or simply set them aside for other seemingly more attractive methods to grow the Church. Often those strategies are poorly packaged and ill-advised adaptations of how Empire is always grasping to get more.

Excite: It is His Church. His body. We are His bride. Perhaps He does know best how we should do what He expects us to do.

Explore:

The Church is the theological and practical presence of Christ in our communities.

Expand: Yes, Jesus provides the power but His final instructions also include specific qualities of this Christian community called the Church.

Body of Sermon: The first quality is the

1 Right Motivation.

Acts 1:1–2 ESV

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

1.1 Living Christ.

1.2 Commanded by Christ.

1.3 Chosen by Christ.

The next quality is the

2 Right Message

Acts 1:3 ESV

3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

2.1 Resurrection

2.2 Reassuring

2.3 Ruling.

Then we need the

3 Right Mission.

Acts 1:4–11 ESV

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

3.1 Witness.

3.2 World.

The final quality, often overlooked is the

4 Right Manpower.

Acts 1:12–26 ESV

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. 14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. 15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” 18 (Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) 20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “ ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “ ‘Let another take his office.’ 21 So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” 23 And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen 25 to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” 26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

4.1 Qualities.

4.2 Qualifications.

Shut Down

Like so many other issues in contemporary culture external influences and unbiblical precedents have created an inaccurate conception of the Christian faith. The New Testament typically uses communal or collective metaphors for the Church: flock, vine, stones in the new Temple, family, body. Our self-centered culture has had a gravitational effect on us encouraging a redefinition of Christian experience beyond the personal to the

selfish and narcissistic.

The world is going to be the world. What worries me is when we buy into their arguments thinking that there is some other way besides or beyond the Bible to be obedient to the risen, ascended, and reigning Jesus.

From the very beginning He showed us the right way.

The Right Motivation

The Right Message

The Right Mission

The Right Manpower

God’s word teaches us that if we don’t do it His way, He won’t be a part of what ever success we suffer.