The Great Call Acts 1:1-8

As a pastor, there’s nothing more enlightening than hearing the takeaways of people who listen to your sermons. They highlight your passions, interests, pet subjects. Sometimes, they know what is important to you better than you know it yourself. So, it was with some interest that I had a family member ask me about my preaching, “Clint, every time I hear you preach, I hear you talking about God’s purpose for our lives, like we all have a calling. Do you think God has placed a calling on my life?”

That’s exactly right! He does! He has a call that He’s extended to every one of us, a call to be His witnesses.

-Jesus calls His disciples to carry the Gospel to the world

As Disciples we are called to…

I. Believe the Son vv. 1-3

Over the last several weeks, we have looked at the Great Commandment (Love your neighbor) and the Great Commission (Make disciples)

Now, we are looking at the final component, the Great Call (testify about Jesus)

It is impossible to love your neighbor or to make a disciple of your neighbor if you don’t tell them about Jesus!

Luke has already written a book about the ministry of Jesus that we call the Gospel of Luke

Now, in his second book, Acts, we will see how the Church carries out the mission of Jesus

We are at a critical point; Jesus is preparing to return to heaven and He is going to give some final instructions

Luke tells us something important here:

Jesus presented Himself alive to the disciples by “many proofs”

He wants them to be as certain of His resurrection as they were of His life and death; this is the Gospel message

Just as those disciples were invited to believe the “whole Gospel” we are invited to believe it as well

Christianity is not primarily a commitment to a set of principles or practices

It is a commitment to a person (Jesus) and His purpose (redemption)

If you do not believe the facts about who Jesus is and what He is doing, whatever kind of religion you have is ultimately empty

I want to invite you to believe in Jesus

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

-CS Lewis Mere Christianity

II. Receive the Spirit vv. 4-5

Now that the time has come for Jesus to ascend and marching orders to go out, we expect action

Jesus however, offers a surprise instruction: wait

What are they waiting for? The promised Holy Spirit of the Father

This is good news! We will not be left alone. In the absence of Christ, God’s Spirit will be present with us

Just as we believe in a person (Jesus) we receive a person (the Holy Spirit)

For a brief period of time, the Church will wait for the coming of the Spirit, but we are no less in need of the Spirit

Jesus promises the presence of His Holy Spirit in a shocking way

We will be baptized (immersed) in the Holy Spirit

We will be filled with the Holy Spirit

We will bear fruit by the Holy Spirit

We will be empowered by the Holy Spirit

We will be guided by the Holy Spirit

We will be sealed by the Holy Spirit

We will have as much of the Holy Spirit as we are prepared to receive!

Romans 8:5–6

[5] For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. [6] For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (ESV)

III. Trust the Father vv. 6-7

This all seems really good, but the disciples have questions

They want to know when God is going to restore the Kingdom to Israel

They are very similar to us. They are looking for certainty, safety, and sufficiency

They want Jesus to tell them when and how God is going to work

Jesus’s answer is a little shocking, but it still stands

We do not get the answers to “when” or “how”

The Father is not interested in answering those questions, because the most important question has already been answered: “Who”?

We are able to place our faith in a Father who loves us, provides for us, protects us, and has a good purpose for us

We will never have certainty in this life, as it relates to when God will act or even how He will act, but we can be confident in Him!

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

-Corrie Ten Boom

IV. Share the Gospel v. 8

All of this culminates with an invitation: to be Christ’s witnesses

I think there are three notes about this call:

It is a Spirit-empowered call. We are not intended to do this in our own strength

It is Son-centered call. We are not called to share how great we are or the organization that we represent. We proclaim Christ!

It is a Spreading call. We must carry this good news to the uttermost parts of the Earth

I cannot tell you where all God might be sending you, but I can tell you what you should be doing where you are right now: telling someone about Jesus

Ran across this convicting piece recently from Charles Spurgeon, in a 1873 sermon entitled “A Sermon and a Reminiscence”:

Once more, he who really has this high estimate of Jesus will think much of him, and as the thoughts are sure to run over at the mouth, he will talk much of him. Do we so?

If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself; you will be whispering it into your child’s ear; you will be telling it to your husband; you will be earnestly imparting it to your friend; without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent; your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love.

Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him. Of course I do not mean by that, that those who use the pen are silent: they are not. And those who help others to use the tongue, or spread that which others have written, are doing their part well: but that man who says, “I believe in Jesus,” but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another about him, by mouth, or pen, or tract, is an impostor.