ACTS 1:1-11

INTRO- Hello, Pastor Chris…..glad to be here, we appreciate you and your time, Welcome Guests Connect….. Pastor Jason away….

Video- Pastor Jason

As Pastor Jason mentioned we look forward to August 11 when we will launch our 3rd service….. As we look forward you may ask:

Where can I serve? What am I to do? Where do I fit it? Or you may be a visitor or new to this church and be asking What am I here for?

I believe we can answer both those questions from today’s text, though a familiar text, I want you to posture your hearts, your eyes, and your ears to the text and allow God to speak to you…. At times we can be guilty of hearing something and thinking…. Man, I hope so and so is listening to this! Or this person or that person really needed to hear this! God desires to speak to us individually, personally as well as corporately! Today let us focus our individual attention on God, His Word, and our lives as individuals!

To Look Forward, we must look back to remember, remember God’s design and purpose for the church, remember the mission we are called to, remember to power we are to go in, remember who we are CALLED TO BE!

CALLED TO BE!

As we look at the opening verses of this book, we’ll see that three acts are continuing: the message, the ministry, and the witness of Christ’s church.

We are called to be GOD’s People, proclaiming His Gospel, to All People!

Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission—God's mission” (14). “The church is the consequence, the result, of God's own missionary activity.”- God's mission came first and God's church came second. The church exists for the mission—not the other way around.

Genre- Historical Narrative- teaching is descriptive (an account of what happened, details, etc & prescriptive- but not all) God’s design for the church!

ACTS 1:1-11

Imagine a sailboat out on the open sea. The wind fills its sails, propelling it forward, but the sailor cannot control the wind. He can only adjust the sails and the rudder to navigate. In the same way, being empowered but not in control means trusting God's guidance in our lives, even when we can't dictate the circumstances.

1 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

BE kingdom focused

What did Jesus talk to his disciples about for forty days between his resurrection and his ascension? The kingdom of God. God’s kingdom agenda is the unifying theme of Scripture. We may define it as the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God in every area of life. Thus, the church exists to serve King Jesus and his kingdom.

Kingdom Focused- Jesus’ example; Jesus prays your kingdom come and your will be done. John the Baptist- example

FOCUS ON GOD’S KINGDOM, NOT OUR OWN!

4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to WAIT for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

JOHN 14, 15, & 16

5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

We are not good at waiting

Baptized- dipped, plunged, immersed, overwhelmed.

Jesus used what was familiar (baptism) to them to introduce something new!

6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”

They still did not quite get it….This is the Resurrected Jesus- He is unstoppable! NOW!!!! It is time the disciples wondered and ask!?!

Jesus was going to do a greater work then restoring Jerusmalem and freeing them from Roman oppression!

BE empowered by the HOLY SPIRIT

Obsessed with power, we want it, we dream about it- for our kingdom; God gives power

Are we running on empty?

Boldness, witnesses, self-denial proclaiming Jesus Chris as Lord and Savior

A. W. Tozer “If the Holy Spirit were taken away from the New Testament church 90% of what they did would come to halt.” Then he adds, “If the Holy Spirit were taken away from today’s church, only 10% of what it does would cease.”

TENSION BETWEEN BEING EMPOWERED, BUT NOT IN CONTROL!!!!

7 He said to them, “It is NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;

NOT FOR US TO KNOW………

8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

NOT FOR US TO KNOW………But to BE:

BE faithful witnesses

Acts 1:8 also gives us a general outline of the Book of Acts as it describes the geographical spread of the Gospel: from Jerusalem (Acts 1–7) to Judea and Samaria (Acts 8–9), and then to the Gentiles and to the ends of the earth (Acts 10–28). No matter where we live, as Christians we should begin our witness at home and then extend it “into all the world.” As Dr. Oswald J. Smith used to say, “The light that shines the farthest will shine the brightest at home.”

The major focus of the book of Acts is stated in this verse. Jesus said believers would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, empowering them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem first and then spreading to the ends of the earth. Note three things about how this unfolds. First, the empowering presence is to be the Holy Spirit, not Jesus Himself. Jesus prepared His disciples for the transition when the Holy Spirit would come to be a constant presence in His bodily absence. Second, the growth of the church would come about through the witness of the disciples. From the beginning, the church is depicted as a community that actively witnesses to their faith in Jesus Christ. Third, the result of this witness will be measurable, geographical growth. This growth will begin in Jerusalem and then spread through ever-widening concentric circles to other Jewish areas (e.g., Judea), to areas on the edges of Judaism (e.g., Samaria), and eventually to “the ends of the earth,” which may refer to the known world of that time, likely coextensive with the reach of the Roman Empire. As new lands and peoples were discovered in coming centuries, the church understood that it must keep expanding its witness to reach the newfound “ends of the earth.”

BE missional laborers

MATTHEW 28

17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11 They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

We are called to BE:

Loved by the Father

Empowered by the Spirit

Witnesses of the Son

You have the Holy Spirit, but does the Holy Spirit have you? Are you walking hand in hand with God, asking for Him to fill you with His Spirit?

APPLICATION:

We like to be US-focused, our kingdom…. But we are called to BE JESUS FOCUSED…. God and His Kingdom…

We enjoy control and power- both things we need to give up to allow God and His Spirit to move us, send us where and when He wants us to go!

As we get older, we tend to get “wiser”.... We dont take risks (flip off the raft at camp) not any more!

Jesus did not need a big elaborate fancy temple, they already had that! Jesus was preparing a people, commissioning a people for the work/working of the Kingdom of God!

Story of football game, untied cleats, unbuckled, ready to get on the bus….

Today- it looks like the world is turning the church upside down, when the church is designed to turn the world upside down

BE LOVED (“MY” owned, adopted, overwhelmingly loved by God!!!) Boys do crazy things when they are in love or think they are in love….. Spend more $ on things, write poetry/songs, mannerisms, actions change… same is true with being LOVED by GOD and LOVING GOD! JESUS is our treasure!!!!